Posted on 08/25/2010 3:41:47 AM PDT by Swordmaker
I have to constantly remind myself that sales estimates can be all over the place, so when a recent report suggested Macs sales weren’t improving as fast as some expected, I was ready to attribute that state of affairs to the extreme success of the iPad.
However, it now appears that Mac sales may actually be growing faster than previously believed.
There’s a story in this week’s issue of Fortune that, in June, sales of new Macs to the enterprise actually soared nearly 50%, about three times higher than the rest of the PC industry. In addition, sales to government soared 200%, which is 16 times faster than the rest of the market.
At the same time, sales to consumers improved by roughly 35%, so it’s clear Macs aren’t losing their luster for home users either.
But the enterprise? Now maybe it’s just a statistical blip, since Apple has such a small market penetration in the business world. Perhaps the same is true for government users, but maybe, just maybe, so many business users are sick and tired of the ongoing problems with Windows that they’re looking for an exit plan. Sure, perhaps Windows 7 is far better than its predecessors, but when Microsoft can only list such silliness as pinning document windows on the corners of the screen as one of the most compelling new features, you just know that they have nothing important to say.
But what’s most fascinating is the fact that this is all happening when the iPad seems to be selling far more copies than anyone expected. At the same time, are new iPad users buying them as extra devices, or are sales being cannibalized from other products?
If the latter, just what products are we talking about? Macs? Evidently not, unless you want to argue that far more Macs would otherwise be sold. PCs? Perhaps, since sales of new PCs, outside of the business market, haven’t gone so well this summer, particularly in the netbook category.
Of course, you have to realize that a netbook is not a terribly inviting product. There’s not an ounce of innovation to be found. All the PC makers did was to shrink notebooks down as small as they can, and use cheaper components, including slow processors. It’s hard to take a $300 netbook and expect it to offer anything close to credible performance for all but the most basic tasks. Everything is a compromise.
The iPad is a totally different product with extremely snappy performance and a smart, intuitive interface that actually takes the PC into a whole new dimension. Consider that, until the iPad came out, no other PC maker had a clue what to do about tablets. After touting the arrival of tablet PCs 10 years ago, the best Microsoft could so was to deliver a clumsy alternative to the regular Windows computer with a stylus to click buttons on the screen.
Watching one of these tablets in action certainly demonstrates how bad they are, and why they have been abject failures outside of certain business categories.
Our family doctor, for example, has a network of Fujitsu tablet computers in his office. The doctor and his assistants carry them around while examining patients and consulting records. They employ the ever-present stylus to activate functions using a special vertical market application that’s designed for physicians. But actual text is still entered via the keyboard. We’re not talking about an iPhone-styletouch interface here, but a kludge based totally on a traditional PC that employs a stylus in place (or in addition to) a touchpad or mouse.
It’s no wonder such devices didn’t catch on for the vast majority of users.
Of course, now that the iPad has been a proven success even early in its lifetime, the rest of the PC world is madly scrambling to deliver a credible competitor. But so far rather than deliver product, they are delivering hype. Claims mean nothing without a powerful product lineup to demonstrate they can truly deliver the goods.
Consider that recent silly statement from Chang Ma, vice president of marketing for LG Electronics’ mobile-devices unit, who praised the iPad and then promised they could build a better tablet. All this without any evidence that LG can develop an operating system that comes close to matching the iOS. Or maybe they plan to rely on the forthcoming Google Chrome OS, but that would put the LG tablet computer in the same range as other products using a Google-based OS. Where’s the differentiation?
Indeed, why are members of the mainstream press taking anything Chang Ma says seriously? Does he have experience in this product category that he can point to in order to prove his claims? Not a chance.
With all this nonsense, you don’t have to wonder why more and more businesses have opted to order the real thing: a Mac.
Frankly, I don't have direct professional experience with the government's networks; my career is pretty broad but has been mostly aerospace/industrial/commercial.
I don't have a lot of faith in the government's ability to do -anything- right, but that's a larger question. :)
I don't think heterogeneity has a bad effect, and might be a benefit. A Windows monoculture is proven to be a bad idea, security-wise, but that's true of any monoculture.
Gonna have to run to work now... I'll catch up with the thread later today...
What's your basis / criteria for this "proof"? Securing heterogenous networks has consistenly proven more problematic than homogenous networks.
All hyper-lefties as you might expect. But then, notice something unusual. He hasn't made one since 2004.
I doubt if it's because Rahm Emanuel forgot to ask.
OTHO Here's a list of Bill Gate's contributions. He goes about half and half giving to ultra-libs like Harry Reid & Pelosi, and conservatives like John Thune.
It seems he's trying to go the Orren Boyle route whereas Jobs is taking the Hank Rearden one.
And Gates doesn't seem to have a problem shoving money at International Planned Parenthood
I thought you were wrong about Michael Dell so I went searching for answers. You are right. He supports Republican conservatives.
Most netbooks have more powerful processors than the iPad, and more memory. The difference is that the iPad runs an OS made for low-power mobile devices and most netbooks are running desktop Windows to bog them down. You can get snappy performance from a netbook by installing a slimmer netbook-oriented OS like Moblin or one of the other slimmed-down Linux distros. The iPad's main speed advantage over the average netbook is the use of flash memory for storage, but then you can get a flash netbook too.
Let's just hope they're replacing EOL Windows systems instead of filling new seats, and have the proper management in place to take advantage of the Mac's lower TCO.
Not likely? Well, I said "hope."
That's easy. The whole network uses the MAC (Media Access Control) sublayer of the Data Link layer of the OSI model. The MAC (Mandatory Access Control) in Windows 7 and Server 2008 hasn't caused any problems either. I'm pretty sure our CPUs have basic MAC (Multiply-ACcumulate) in their instructions sets, no problem so far.
Just what we need, another business cheat supporting Republicans so the Democrats can point.
Thank you. I’m sure that will be very useful.
If you wanted to know about Macs, you should have asked about Macs, not MACs.
The big problem with Macs in AD is that you can't use much of Windows group policy on them. Of course, in reverse, you can't use much of the Mac's equivalent of group policy on Windows machines. They are different architectures after all. But you can buy software that will allow more fine-grained management of Macs on a Windows network.
Sorry, I meant to ping Swordmaker. But since I pinged you by mistake, I will respond to your question. I am not making light of the poor state of the economy. But even in the Great Depression, there were companies that made millions. For example the movie industry made a lot of millionaires. And people who owned chains of movie theaters made millions. I think that Apple will be one of those companies that will make millions during the current recession, or depression.
You might be right. Apple’s products seem to have a lot of “entertainment appliance” intent in their design.
Well, if they bring up again the issue of Jobs legally backdating his stock options this might be good information. Dell himself was fined several million and the company was fined over $100 million for taking money from Intel to use only their chips rather than AMD's.
Your question was a political statement, not a real question.
Do you know what the MS in MSNBC stands for?
Pretty heave dose of kool aid there for you. As a matter of fat can you name one major old line corporation that does not donate to whomever is in power. Apple was a big supporter of Bill Clinton, they nearly went broke during that period.
Bill Gates is trying to give his billions along with his friends billions, to the UN. That idiot Ted Turner who was once considered too right wing to own one of the big three broadcasting companies, created CNN and became a loonie lefty, who wants to go duck hunting with Castro.
One way to make sure nobody asks any questions you don't like is to simply declare them not to be questions.
I already named Dell. I agree that corporations tend to make political donations to the powers that be.
Having someone like Al Gore sitting on your Board of Directors is a different proposition, IMHO. You're free to disagree, and even to argue that he's a wonderful guy and you love having him there, if you wish.
I’ll just stick with the hardware/software in front of me on a daily basis (Dell-Windows/Apple-OSx), and say I’d rather have the Apple any day. I’m not going to buy crap, for something as essential to my every day life as a computer, just because the guy who runs the company gives to one party or another.
You can do that. I've seen some people swear they'd never buy another GM vehicle after UAW took them over, and others not so much. If I saw a report that GM was suddenly selling lots of cars to the government I'd still suspect there's some mutual back-washing going on because that's the way this administration operates.
Apple makes PC makers look silly
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