The cult of Mac is growing as Apple emerges as the key computer for US consumers, amongst which it is now the fourth-ranked computer manufacturer, according to new research from MetaFacts.
Brand loyalty, the report claims, is at an all-time high with Apple’s chain of retail stores pulling customers through the doors - and selling Macs, MacBooks, MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros in particular, the researchers claim in their latest Apple Profile Report 2008.
It gets better, “Like the camel slipping its nose under the tent, Apple is reaching into American households as the second or third Home PC,” said Dan Ness, Principal Analyst at MetaFacts. “Where Apple shines is
as the third PC, ranking fifth with 8 per cent of third Home PCs, and ranking fourth in notebook PCs, also at 8 per cent of the installed base.”
And whether that Mac is a first, second or third home computer, what households do with their machine is very different. They’re used to make websites, create graphics and “personal activities”, the report explains - probably while the Windows box gets used for checking email, playing games, and cranking up peoples scores in MMORPG games online. Or something.
Mac users are public, too, this report explains. Seems 21 per cent of Macs are used in public - double the public usage of your WIndows machine - and potentially marking Apple’s ascendancy as a laptop maker.
“If you look around at a Starbucks or cybercafé, you might think the whole world’s gone to Apple,” said Ness, “Mac users are very active and use their notebooks in more locations than Windows notebook users.”
Wait, there’s more - brand loyalty, “More than four in five (81%) of households with Apple as their primary Home PC plan to buy the same brand - Apple - for their next Home PC,” said Ness.
All this action in the consumer market, is it any surprise that the long tail effect Apple executives hoped for four or five years ago when they began visualising it has now begun taking place?
The company gets put down a lot for not focusing sufficient attention on the enterprise markets. Perhaps it didn’t - once - but for the last few years of Apple market expansion, the company’s executives have known that consumer demand would eventually become an enterprise market driver.
Think about it - do you recall when you moved jobs and were once excited about the technology you got to use because it would be better than what you could afford at home? Nowadays when you start a new job its not uncommon to live in abject fear (OK, slight trepidation) of the dated system you’ll end up working with…it’s not at all uncommon for workplace technology to be less advanced than the tech company workers have at home.
And as Apple’s consumer market share grows, so too does the demand made on enterprises to offer workers the equipment they are already familiar with.
And that’s the long tail Apple execs set in motion with the iMac in 1998.
Written by Jonny Evans on September 11th, 2008 with no comments.
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In the week since Apple announced its “Let’s Rock” event, the organization’s spokespeople have assured all observers that this would be a really critical launch, with bigger news than just a refresh of the iPod product family.
Well, apparently Apple and I have very different definitions of “big news.” Because all the organization delivered was more of the same:
- An iPod touch that looks more like the iPhone 3G, but loses the black aluminum border that gave the device its own distinctive personality. But hey, price cuts and built-in Nike+ support! (no word on iPhone support, however)
- An iPod nano that looks more like the nano 2G than its predecessor, adds a few new colors and awkwardly tries to implement the UI from the touch and iPhone. Oh, and you can shake it to shuffle.
- An iPod classic that literally makes no changes other than bumping the hard drive capacity and cutting the high-end model. It now costs exactly the same as the high-end Zune, and has the same hard drive capacity.
- A new revision of iTunes with smarter automatic playlist generation, HD TV show downloads, and the return of NBC/Universal programs
- Bug fixes for the iPhone.
- And two lame songs from Jack Johnson. That’s it.
The business sense side of me is saying that Apple has another winner. The designer side of my brain really likes the subtle changes that Apple’s design team has brought to the the product line (except for the ugly iPod classic — hate the use of aluminum there). But the Apple fanatic in me can’t help but me incredibly disappointed by this morning’s activity.
Just how perfunctory was this round of updates? Consider this: The event has been done for 30 minutes, all the new models are available for purchase on the Apple Store, and Apple still hasn’t updated its own website to announce the product launches (EDIT: It went up as I finished typing. STILL). Apple has never gone this long without getting its main site up-to-date.
Now, none of us should be surprised by any of this; after the launch of iPhone 3G, AppStore, and the fiasco called MobileMe, it’s little surprise that Apple hasn’t been able to devote many resources to doing more than making slightly curvier cases for the iPod line. But Apple has trained us to expect the best, particularly when they say it’s really time to pay attention. Today, it completely missed the mark. I can’t recall an Apple launch event this underwhelming since the launch of the iPod HiFi and iPod socks. It’s this year’s model, and nothing more. It’s the entire iPod product line as afterthought to the iPhone.
And that’s not good. The iPod family is Apple’s highest-revenue business, and any indication that the company is bored with the media player business or unable to innovate beyond bringing iPhone features to iPods is going to mean a rough time in the market. It’s certainly not impossible to do so, Apple’s just in an unfortunate liminal space between the launch of a new business and the adaptation of another. The new nanos, in particular, felt oddly anacronistic. Why go to all that trouble to design such a wildly different case for this revision and then still use the same old clickwheel? Why, in the name of all that is holy, would you copy the horizontal interface on the right, screen on the left interaction found on the flash-based Zune? Why launch nine, count them, nine new colors in a single day when this is a clear incremental upgrade while the company works on a touchscreen nano for the near future?
Honestly, the biggest news today is that the iPod touch has dropped in price by $70 and has external volume controls. It’s the future of the product line, and Apple needs to drive its adoption rapidly while the pre-2007 iPod outlook gradually ramps down.
In the mean time, I sincerely hope that we’ll see new Mac announcements on a not-too-distant Tuesday. The entire product line is just begging for processor upgrades, and they’ve been suffering while Apple has put so much attention on the iPhone this year. Not to mention which, it’s high time that Apple brought out a true Home Theater Mac for the living room — AppleTV and Mac mini aren’t cutting it.
Written by Pete Mortensen on September 9th, 2008 with no comments.
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Image via Gizmodo
Steve Jobs took the stage this morning for Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event, bounding into the lights like a rock star himself. My grandmother would say he looked svelte, but most importantly, he seemed energetic and strong.
We’ll be back later in the day with a full reaction and analysis of Apple’s news, but the big news is Steve looks ready to keep on truckin’.
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 9th, 2008 with no comments.
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Apple PR pulled out the big guns this week and invited, nay “encouraged” tech and entertainment media luminaries to pack the Yerba Buena Center for Steve Jobs’ “Let’s Rock” in San Francisco on September 9th.
The now-familiar rumors and speculation, with “leaked” photos and drawings that precede these Apple “events” have been flying back and forth for weeks, and soon enough we’ll see how all the pieces fit together. Join us on Tuesday as we twitter the proceedings.
We invite you to follow along with us as the morning unfolds, using the keynote bingo card below to keep track of both likely and rumored items that could appear during the presentation.
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 6th, 2008 with no comments.
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Amazon.com is now offering what it calls “instant ad-free movies and TV shows” on Macs, PCs and Sony BRAVIA TV sets at the newly re-branded “Amazon Video On Demand” website.
A few months ago, consumers greeted the giant webertainment service’s “Unbox” partnership with TiVo with a collective yawn, due mainly to complaints about the lack of on-demand streaming options, according to the director of Amazon Video On Demand, Roy Price, who says “the ability to watch content instantly without downloading first was among the most requested features of our customers, and now it’s live–customers can instantly watch the ad-free title of their choice …”
Some promotional videos are free and you can preview the first 2 minutes of any offering. Episodes of TV shows cost $1.99 and movies are $14.99. Movies can also be ‘rented’ for 24 hours for $3.99. Purchasing allows download to two machines and unlimited viewing online. The service claims to stock over 14 thousand movies and 1,200 TV shows including pre-purchase-able rights to upcoming seasons.
Amazon claims to be the only digital video service in the US offering the choice of streaming as well as downloading webertainment content.
Written by Lonnie Lazar on September 5th, 2008 with no comments.
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