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Consumers are forsaking Apple and its pricey luxury laptops, like the MacBook Air seen here, and opting instead for cheaper netbooks. As a result Apple saw its sales growth drop, while Acer saw its sales explode.  (Source: Apple)

Acer Aspire One
Apple braces for more bad news with the latest market research releases

Whether you love Apple, hate it, or just see it as another company, it’s hard to deny that the company has had a rough couple weeks.  In what was supposed to be Apple's dramatic last bow from Macworld, it failed to deliver any product that excited the audience much, only announcing a few minor releases and changes to its iTunes pricing.  To make matters worse its CEO and guiding hand, Steve Jobs, took a sick leave and will be out until the end of June.

Now market research firm Gartner has released metrics on PC sales in Q4 2008, and the numbers aren't in Apple's favor according to AppleInsider.  In Q3 2008 Apple had seen growth of 29.4 percent and had shipped a reported 1.645 million units.  This fell in Q4 2008 to a mere 8.3 percent growth, shipping 1.225 million Macs.  Apple gained a point of market share over the course of the year, and did ship 96,000 more systems that in Q4 2007.  However, the numbers paint the picture that Apple's growth is slowing, which puts a damper on any gains.

Acer, fueled by its surprise sales hit the Aspire One netbook, grew an incredible 55.4 percent in Q4 2008 to reclaim its number three spot and take a commanding lead over Apple.  It shipped 2.374 million units in the quarter.  Acer's market share of 15.2 percent is approaching HP and Dell's after being at only 8.8 percent last year.

Toshiba made modest gains, growing 12 percent to be only the third of three top tier PC manufacturers to show growth.  HP and Dell both posted losses in growth, but Dell posted the bigger one, with growth down 16.4 percent, cutting its lead over competitor HP.  HP took a smaller 3.4 percent fall, shipping 4.288 million units to Dell's 4.466 million units.

The PC market as a whole, according to Gartner, is in its biggest slump since 2002.  It posted sales of 78.1 million units for the quarter, an anemic 1.1 percent yearly quarter to quarter growth, and the lowest since 2002.  Analyst Mika Kitagawa comments, "The United States experienced steeper than expected shipment declines due to the recession. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region was also affected by the economic slow down across key countries.  Asia/Pacific recorded the worst shipment growth since Gartner started its PC statistics research. Latin America met expectations, but its growth was much lower than in the past."

In the world market, HP furthered its lead, mustering a 3.5 percent growth, while second place Dell saw sales fall 5.9 percent.  Acer took a commanding third worldwide with 31.1 percent growth, while Toshiba also showed strong growth of 20.7 percent.  Fourth place Lenovo fell slightly, by 4.5 percent.  Apple again failed to crack the top five.

Over the year 302.2 million units were shipped worldwide, a slightly better 10.9 percent increase from 2007.  However, growth slowed the most towards the end of the year, a bad omen for next year’s sales.

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Amazon best sellers
By sliderule on 1/15/2009 10:28:55 AM , Rating: 5
I remember a year ago the top selling laptops at Amazon were usually macbooks.

Ever since the economy really started taking a nose dive I've noticed the top ten best sellers have been mostly netbooks.

As of typing this the top ten are netbooks with the exception of a macbook at number 8.




RE: Amazon best sellers
By jabber on 1/15/2009 10:39:43 AM , Rating: 5
The great decider in a economic downturn -

The $600 Mac Mini or the $350 PC/Netbook.

Both browse the web/email/photos. The Netbook comes with a screen though.

Tough call. ahem.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By quiksilvr on 1/16/2009 1:43:40 AM , Rating: 2
That's what happens when you price things all stupid. Apple products should be priced higher than the current market, but not to the idiotic extent that they pushed it.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By jonmcc33 on 1/16/2009 7:33:58 AM , Rating: 2
According to Steve Jobs that $350 netbook is a piece of junk. He couldn't charge you any less than $600 for the same thing. You pay for the "experience" of getting ripped off.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By Bender 123 on 1/15/2009 10:59:21 AM , Rating: 5
I think another real issue people are starting to notice that they don't need the latest and greatest to check their Facebook page and Word.

My point is, that for the masses, the PC they have is "good enough". I would bet 90% of PC users never use more horsepower than it takes to launch iTunes, play solitaire and laugh at a dude getting kicked in the junk on YouTube.

The same thing is happening in cars right now. Two years ago people stated they just wanted a new car, because the new one was better. The latest version was almost the exact opposite...Why buy a new car when the one I have works fine.

In these troubled time (everybody take a drink) many people are realizing they dont need the latest and greatest.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By sliderule on 1/15/2009 1:05:30 PM , Rating: 4
Yeah I see that happening too. Speaking of cars, I remember in the 1980's through the 1990's 250-300 horsepower was considered powerful...exotic stuff like Ferrari had around 250hp in the 80's, and people lusted over these machines.

Over the past decade peoples expectations of what's needed for power has gotten pretty ridiculous...btw, I'm all for faster cpu's, and cars, it's just whats desired and whats needed can be two different things. It's all a matter of perception.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By Bender 123 on 1/15/2009 1:11:25 PM , Rating: 3
Current Economy=Champagne Tastes + Beer Budget


RE: Amazon best sellers
By rudy on 1/15/2009 3:34:31 PM , Rating: 4
Don't the mass PC users play games and watch movies?
This new attitude that people dont need anymore is somewhat annoying. People buy cheap stuff for all different reasons many times its cause they dont know any better. I find most people even in highly educated circles simply know almost nothing about the power of a computer.

They will buy a TV and a computer when they only needed 1 because when they watch a movie on their crappy notebook it lags and has poor sound. If you gave them something better and it worked well maybe they would use the notebook only?

I don't think its that simple sure some people only check email but alot of people just do not do more on their computer cause it sucks at doing more. I see gamers every day who are fustrated with gaming and think it sucks cause they know nothing about video cards and they have some crappy laptop with integrated intel graphics. So they go buy an XBOX 360 cause they think its better for gaming.

It is really sad cause I envisioned years ago that in general by this point people would get rid of consoles and other specialized equipment and people would just use powerful laptops to game, entertain, and work. Instead we see people buying 20 different electronic devices for their life when 1 will do it all if its not a hunk of junk.

Netbooks themself are kinda stupid when a smart phone is almost at their level. That was what atom should have been for. If all you need is basic net and youtube you can do that on a phone and have one less device.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By gstrickler on 1/15/2009 5:31:47 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Don't the mass PC users play games and watch movies?

No, most users are not hardcore gamers. The games they play don't require extreme graphics solutions or CPUs.

Watching movies doesn't take much of a machine, my 9 year old Pentium 3 machine can handle movies just fine (not HD, but like most people, I don't have an HD source on that computer).

quote:
They will buy a TV and a computer....

Watching movies on a computer (even with a 30" widescreen) pales compared to a 40+" HDTV. A fairly large HDTV + a mid-range laptop costs a lot less than a high end computer and 30" monitor and you have two devices that can be used at the same time, and one of them is portable. You don't have to load monthly security updates on the TV, worry about backing up the TV, etc. Sure, you can watch movies on a computer, but the TV and computer have different purposes and will remain separate markets no matter how many times the consumer electronics companies try to integrate them. Yes, they'll continue to add features that integrate/overlap the two, but they will remain separate markets.

quote:
I don't think its that simple sure some people only check email....

Yes, it is. Most people use a computer for email, web surfing, iTunes/MP3 playback, digital photos, Word/Excel, maybe some basic video editing (i.e. home made DVDs), and some light gaming. The video editing is the most demanding of those tasks, and since DVD uses MPEG2 not H.264 or VC1, it doesn't need a high end GPU (let's just ignore Intel integrated graphics.)

quote:
...I envisioned years ago that in general by this point people would get rid of consoles and other specialized equipment and people would just use powerful laptops to game, entertain....

It's not going to happen, not in the mainstream during the next 20 years. Dedicated devices are simpler to setup, operate, and maintain, and are less susceptible to mal-ware. Most don't use hard drives so they're more reliable. They're better suited to real-time media and less likely to crash than a general purpose computer. They're also much less likely to experience compatibility issues. The KISS principle applies.

quote:
Netbooks themself are kinda stupid when a smart phone is almost at their level.

I basically agree on this one. Smart phones aren't quite at the same level, but they're close enough for most tasks and far more convenient (other than for typing). I don't see a 1.5-3 pound device with a 7"-10" screen, compressed keyboard, and short battery life doing well against smart phones that are under .5 pounds, 1/4 the physical size, with similar capabilities and better battery life. Plus, a netbook is one more device to have to carry around and recharge. I think that ultra portable laptops and smart phones will squeeze the netbook out of the market. The netbook market could be very short-lived (or I could be completely wrong).


RE: Amazon best sellers
By Wierdo on 1/16/2009 12:52:14 PM , Rating: 2
quote:

Sure, you can watch movies on a computer, but the TV and computer have different purposes and will remain separate markets no matter how many times the consumer electronics companies try to integrate them. Yes, they'll continue to add features that integrate/overlap the two, but they will remain separate markets.


I don't know about that. HDTV make great PC monitors imho, I got me a 32" HDTV set to use as my primary PC display, and together with a wireless keyboard I am really digging the surfing, gaming, and media entertainment on this combo. My mother's thinking about getting one for herself as well, and she just likes to surf and check Youtube every couple days or so.

I think there could be a trend towards HDTVs substituting for PC monitors for many people considering you can grab a set like mine for around $450 now. I think it's great to have all your entertainment needs simplified into one nice package like that.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By kelmon on 1/16/2009 4:01:30 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Don't the mass PC users play games and watch movies?


Don't be silly. PC gaming is both annoying (do I have the specs to run this game?) and, frankly, the games are dull. Why anyone would want to watch movies on their PC is quite beyond me.

I think you may have to accept that specialist equipment is just better suited to the job and that a single computer will not deliver all the functions that you are looking for. For example, you can hardly marry the requirements of a large screen for watching video and also portability unless you can build a projector into the computer.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By jonmcc33 on 1/16/2009 7:37:16 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Why anyone would want to watch movies on their PC is quite beyond me.


Never heard of torrents I take it? Any dual core can handle HD movies up to 1080p anyway. Doesn't take a high end rig to do that.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By ultimatebob on 1/15/2009 12:49:14 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah... I love how Apple decided to release a new $2,800 laptop as their only new hardware product at a time where many technology people are fearing job cuts and are trying to cut back expenses in almost every way possible. Nice planning, guys.

I hope that Steve Jobs gets well soon, so he can come into the office and give that person one of his famous face to face verbal thrashings!


RE: Amazon best sellers
By sliderule on 1/15/2009 1:12:19 PM , Rating: 4
How do you know it wasn't Jobs idea? Still I get what your saying, and I hope he gets well too.

It's a shame Apple doesn't release a netbook of their own. They'd sell them hand over fist for $500 even if it had the same specs as a $350 netbook.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By RamarC on 1/15/2009 3:29:16 PM , Rating: 2
but apple faithful typically rebuy their hardware every 18-24 months. and many macs cannot be upgraded to match the features of the latest models. so apple's just sticking to the same business model that's made them successful.

on the other hand, most PC users keep a PC for 3-4 years. they don't care about the latest feature and they rarely upgrade their PC. (i'm not talking about enthusiasts, just the vast majority of home users and practically all business users.)


RE: Amazon best sellers
By gstrickler on 1/15/09, Rating: 0
RE: Amazon best sellers
By sigilscience on 1/16/2009 12:02:52 AM , Rating: 4
quote:
Macs are generally useful and productive for 4-6 years
You think there's something magical about Mac hardware?

News flash for you. Apple doesn't make CPUs, memory chips, or hard drives. These components get faster at the same rate (and get obsolete at the same rate) no matter who assembles them into their own computers.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By gstrickler on 1/16/2009 2:57:51 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
News flash for you. Apple doesn't make CPUs, memory chips, or hard drives.
News flash for you. Apple doesn't just assemble machines made with off-the-shelf components. Until they switched to Intel CPUs 3 years ago, Apple did design CPUs (they co-designed the PPC with IBM and Motorola, with Apple providing much of the instruction set). They also designed their own chipsets. The machines that they made until 3 years ago are primarily Apple's own design and those are the machines to which I'm referring since those are the only ones that have had a chance to run for 4+ years.

Now that they're using Intel and Nvidia for CPUs and chipsets, you're more correct, but they may still use some custom designed chips.

How well a manufacturer designs and implements the system can have a major effect on performance, stability, and life-span. Two different manufacturers using the same chips may have vastly different failure rates and product life.

Finally, how the OS uses the hardware can have a major effect on performance and reliability. A MBP running Mac OS X gets nearly 2x the battery life as the same laptop running XP or Vista. Also, the MBP running XP or Vista gets similar battery life to a comparable laptop running XP or Vista. Bottom line, Mac OS X is less demanding on the hardware than Windows, so a Mac can remain usable for longer than a comparable PC running Windows.

For all the above reasons, your argument doesn't apply.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By kelmon on 1/16/2009 4:11:29 AM , Rating: 2
Define "obsolete". As far as a computer user is concerned, obsolete only has relevance when you can no longer run the applications that you want. Just about any computer you buy is technologically obsolete as soon as you get it, but if it runs your applications then what do you care? And that's the point here. Old Macs continue to run current applications just fine, in general. My only caveat here is for things like RAW photography and other applications that make heavy use of the GPU since old Macs without a GPU will certainly struggle there.

Personally, the time when I consider buying new hardware is after 3-years and the AppleCare policy has expired, which will happen on my current MBP at the end of 2009. However, given that my old PowerBook G4 is still trucking along nicely after almost 6-years there isn't much of a need to upgrade.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By jabber on 1/16/2009 6:01:30 AM , Rating: 2
Mmmmmm made by Foxconn...smell the quality!


RE: Amazon best sellers
By amandahugnkiss on 1/16/2009 12:45:51 AM , Rating: 1
"Macs are generally useful and productive for 4-6 years"

I call BS on that one. Running Tiger on any G3 is flat out pathetic, putting Leopard on it is worse. Snow Leopard is not even going to support PPC, it'll be released when Leopard is barely a year old and all the G3's, G4's, and G5's will be made obsolete very quickly after that. No OpenCL for that $4500+ Quad Core G5 workstation. Apple is known for their tactics of making last years hardware obsolete, it's intentional as they make a fair share of their revenue from hardware sales, thus they release a new OS with higher reqs and drop support for older OSes and hardware as quickly as they legally can.

I agree that some of the G4 towers were decent but they actually released variants of that shitty little lampshade iMac that only had 128k of cache, and then they sold it to their poor customers who had no idea of the implications. Then the awesome G5 came around, the fastest processor in the world (according to Steve), oh, wait, we better switch to Intel quick, we seem to have hit a techinical barrier here. Nice. Very typical Apple at work.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By gstrickler on 1/16/2009 2:30:32 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I call BS on that one.
If you're going to try calling BS on something, you might want to check your facts first. See the following:

quote:
Running Tiger on any G3 is flat out pathetic, putting Leopard on it is worse.
Leopard (10.5) doesn't run on a G3. It requires a G4, G5 or Intel based Mac.

Tiger (10.4) runs just as well on a G3 as Panther (10.3) or Jaguar (10.2) did.

quote:
Snow Leopard is not even going to support PPC, it'll be released when Leopard is barely a year old
Leopard was released Oct 2007, Snow Leopard (10.6) is expected Q4-2009, that's at least 2 years after Leopard's release.

quote:
Apple is known for their tactics of making last years hardware obsolete
Actually, they have a well established pattern of supporting machines for 4-6 years after release. The fact that Leopard (released Oct 2007) supports G4 based Macs released in early 2002 and Tiger (released Apr 2005) supports G3 based Macs released in 1999-2000 demonstrates that quite well. And that's just going off the OS release date, since those machines supported as long as the OS is supported and Apple is still releasing updates for Tiger, they're still supporting machines made 9+ years ago.

quote:
Then the awesome G5 came around, the fastest processor in the world
It was awesome, and it's still very competitive in performance.

quote:
oh, wait, we better switch to Intel quick, we seem to have hit a technical barrier here
Yes, the "technical barrier" was that IBM wasn't making a G5 that Apple could use in a laptop. IBM had other priorities. Motorola/Freescale wasn't pushing the speed of the G4 very much, so Apple didn't have a viable laptop CPU for the future. Then, Intel introduced the very fast and power efficient Core CPUs, the choice to switch was made.

Apple didn't even make existing PPC Mac software obsolete when switching to Intel CPUs. Intel based Macs will run PPC applications via some remarkably fast emulation. Apple did the same when switching from 68k based Macs to PPC based Macs.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By nycromes on 1/16/2009 10:25:22 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
Tiger (10.4) runs just as well on a G3 as Panther (10.3) or Jaguar (10.2) did.


If you believe that then I have a vista capable computer I would love to sell you.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By kelmon on 1/16/2009 4:05:13 AM , Rating: 2
I'm running Leopard on a PowerBook G4 1GHz that is 6-years old this August and it runs fine. Thanks for asking.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By MrX8503 on 1/16/2009 11:47:44 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
The iBook G4 (single core 1.33Ghz PPC G4) is nearly as fast in most applications as my MBP (2.2GHz Core2 Duo) because the PPC G4 was a very advanced CPU.


Dude, its because the programs that you run, which don't require much of a CPU, is the reason why those programs are still running decently. Not because the G4 was a very advanced CPU.

I understand what you're saying about performance relatively to one another in certain programs, but don't try to paint a picture of how a G4 is comparable to a C2D. In fact a C2D would simply destroy your very advance G4 CPU, you just can't see that because you're running ms word.

There's a reason why Steve Jobs decided to move from PPC to Intel CPU's, even though Jobs touted for years how the PPC was superior.


RE: Amazon best sellers
By tim851 on 1/16/2009 8:49:16 AM , Rating: 2
The real question is: How many Netbooks does Acer have to sell to make the same profit Apple makes off one MacBook?

Also: isn't one indirect reason for the current economic crisis that people had stupid expectations of economic growth. So why is Apple growing 8% during a global crisis considered bad?


Time for apple to colaborate with microsoft
By Comdrpopnfresh on 1/15/09, Rating: 0
By theendofallsongs on 1/15/2009 11:00:15 AM , Rating: 5
Man, if only you ran MS...they might be doing almost as good as Yahoo is now!


RE: Time for apple to colaborate with microsoft
By afkrotch on 1/15/2009 1:15:22 PM , Rating: 2
You do know that OSX is currently running on PC hardware. The only difference is the Intel setup on Macs doesn't use a bios.

Apple doesn't want to start selling OSX seperately from their machines. This would end up opening it up to a whole new world of bugs. The more hardware/software you start allowing on your OS, the buggier/insecure it starts becoming. That's why Apple limits the hardware that gets used in their machines. For 2008, the latest Macs have probably only been available with like 4-5 gpus, while a PC has easily had 10 times that amount. That's a driver for each of them with their own possible problems. Add other types of hardware, like NICs, soundcards, raid controllers, etc.

If they did go this way, it's image of an OS that simply works would be tossed out the window. If Apple were to do this, it'd be years before we'd see an OS that'd compete with Windows from them. Only now has Microsoft really put effort into setting up the architecture for driver testing/validations. It's been years in the making and took the beginning driver issues of Vista to pour more effort into this.

Just look at how many hundreds/thousands of drivers get used during the install of Windows. Then how many more are available for download when you decide to update. Apple isn't ready for that and god knows if they ever would be. They're too much of control freaks over there.


By FITCamaro on 1/15/2009 3:12:50 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly. Apple fears the open platform like a fat girl fears a tread mill.

People bash Vista for not having the driver support of OSX. OSX only has a handful of drivers required though as opposed to Vista which has to support every CPU and motherboard configuration capable of running it. Plus every GPU back to the 9x00 series for ATI and the FX series for nvidia(I believe).


RE: Time for apple to colaborate with microsoft
By niva on 1/15/2009 1:26:00 PM , Rating: 2
The truth is that OSX is a lot more closed than Windows despite running a BSD core.

Microsoft and Linux will both have to disappear off the face of the Earth before I switch to running OSX. No thanks!

As far as apple products go they get one thing right, design. I like the iphones, I like their macbooks. I also understand why their technology is more expensive. For those who actually want the apple products it's hard right now to justify the costs.


By kelmon on 1/16/2009 4:22:06 AM , Rating: 2
While I disagree with some of the statements, I do entirely agree that it is difficult to justify the costs of buying a new Mac these days when money is tight. Apple does/will have a problem in that area. However, for those already with a Mac it simply means that we'll continue with our existing computers until we can afford to upgrade them because there is nothing to justify a costly switch either.


By robinthakur on 1/16/2009 8:45:14 AM , Rating: 2
Well, apart from the people who are having money issues (mostly because they took on too much credit) or have lost their jobs (no pun intended) I don't see how this would affect Apple more than say HP/Asus/Dell.

Luxury Brands, which Apple positions itself as, regardless of your opinion on its actual validity, tend to survive recessions rather well. Bottom line is that while people do have the disposable cash, they have to spend it on something, and you might as well buy something which feels expensive to remind you of the good old days :) Apple products are differentiated from other brands by their price and their looks. Both are actually good for stoking sales to Apple's chosen demographic.

Tech-lust is also a powerful force, not to be misunderestimated.


By kelmon on 1/16/2009 4:17:46 AM , Rating: 2
As a Mac user, I'd like to offer a polite "thanks but no thanks" response. I went over to the Mac to get away from the Windows OS and its idiocy - I certainly don't want it coming back again.


*sigh*
By Spivonious on 1/15/2009 11:21:14 AM , Rating: 2
I like all the talk about "economic crisis" and "world recession" and how it's big news that company A only grew by 8% this year instead of the 12% they grew by last year. Any growth is good growth. Wake me up when tech companies start losing money, i.e. shrink.




RE: *sigh*
By defter on 1/15/2009 1:43:33 PM , Rating: 2
Check the numbers: "In Q3 2008 Apple had seen growth of 29.4 percent and had shipped a reported 1.645 million units. This fell in Q4 2008 to a mere 8.3 percent growth, shipping 1.225 million Macs."

Apple's sales shrunk 25% between Q3 and Q4 2008.


RE: *sigh*
By Spivonious on 1/15/2009 1:52:48 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe sales are always lower in Q4 than in Q3. The point of the article was that Apples sales growth is "only" 8.3%.


RE: *sigh*
By foolsgambit11 on 1/15/2009 6:13:57 PM , Rating: 2
That's not annual growth. They sold 8% more in Q4 '08 than they sold in Q4 '07. Total sales (adding up all quarters of Gartner's reports) for '08 = 5,307,000 units. '07's total sales = 4,293,000 units. 23.6% growth for the year.

Also, sales numbers don't directly equate to profits. Apple's margins per unit could have been much different this year compared to last - depends on what products were selling, whether their overhead costs changed, &c. I doubt Apple lost money, but it's not unheard of for a company to have sales growth, but not at a fast enough pace to maintain profits because operating costs increased faster than sales.

The concern here, though, is that Q4, which is the first full quarter since the economy really hit the skids, does not show the kind of growth people have expected out of Apple. It's too soon to tell whether this was just in keeping with the lower-than-last-year Christmas retail period, or if it's a harbinger of things to come for Apple.


Yay
By xti on 1/15/2009 10:39:09 AM , Rating: 4
I love iphones, ipods, etc. useful, trendy, status symbol, etc etc.

but i have their computer solutions. its the anti-pc commercials, it actually deterred me from buying a mac.

so i say 'haha' apple computers division, now tell the iphone people down the hall that it needs to smudge less.




RE: Yay
By xti on 1/15/2009 10:39:35 AM , Rating: 2
typo, have = hate, sorry.


Mac People are Cool
By g35fan on 1/15/2009 5:27:13 PM , Rating: 2
2 friends recently purchased Macs. I personally don't care for them much as they are too pricey for what you get in return. I wasn't about to argue or try to make them feel bad so I simply asked them, "what do you use it for?"

Their answers were, "going on facebook and playing games while on the toilet."

Idiots.




RE: Mac People are Cool
By kelmon on 1/16/2009 4:28:55 AM , Rating: 2
In much the same way as people with sports cars who drive them slowly should have their keys taken off them, so those who buy a Mac and don't use it properly should be made to use something else and have it given to someone who will.

I entirely agree that your "friends" are idiots but then I also doubt that anyone would say that they want to "[play] games while on the toilet", not least because everyone knows that there are no games for the Mac. Colour me suspicious...


RE: Mac People are Cool
By robinthakur on 1/16/2009 8:50:26 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
2 friends recently purchased Macs. I personally don't care for them much as they are too pricey for what you get in return.


You know you could read that 2 different ways... My friends are also pricey and don't especially like them as I rarely get my money's worth lol


I don't know why . . .
By biggsjm on 1/15/2009 11:13:55 AM , Rating: 4
People always try to figure out ways to grow Apple's market share.

I guess for the average joe, market share = popularity and popularity = success. But people often forget that Apple, as a company, has a strategy of making "insanely great products" . . . they aren't targeting the wal-mart crowd (even though you can buy an iPhone there)

For the most part Apple is operating a business that caters to people who are price insensitive and who are willing to give up some freedom and openness in the platform for a simple ecosystem that meets their needs.

I agree with what someone said earlier about the Mac Market share probably never growing much above 20% . . . Apple's goal is not to grow Mac Market share but to grow Mac-related revenues. Look at what they've done with their customer base . . . iTunes (music and video purchases), GarageBand (music lessons), MobileMe (hosting services), 1 to 1 (tutor services) . . . they are trying to sell their products for a premium and after the sell, entice those users to consume their services to contribute additional revenue.

As long as that market exists (premium computer products and services) Apple's Mac Revenues are fine.




Where is ?
By Reclaimer77 on 1/15/2009 6:40:28 PM , Rating: 2
Pirks and his f'ing mouth in this article ?

Remember,fourth place is the third loser, douchebag.




RE: Where is ?
By B3an on 1/16/2009 4:32:57 AM , Rating: 2
I was just thinking that! It's only a matter of time before the troll/iSheep pops up.


Not Surprising
By elvirb on 1/15/2009 2:36:33 PM , Rating: 2
This is not surprising at all. Acer makes damn good machines.

I usually don't buy pre-manufactured PCs/Laptops and would rather put my own PC/Laptop together but Acer prices are too attractive and their quality is unsurpassed by the top two Laptop manufacturers.




First Caption
By Totally on 1/15/09, Rating: 0
RE: First Caption
By Totally on 1/15/09, Rating: 0
Clue 101
By Beenthere on 1/15/09, Rating: -1
RE: Clue 101
By biggsjm on 1/15/2009 11:02:43 AM , Rating: 4
Umm . . .there is no DROP IN SALES . . . there was a drop in the sales growth.

They still sold almost 100,000 more than they did in Q4 2007.


RE: Clue 101
By defter on 1/15/2009 1:44:10 PM , Rating: 3
And they sold over 400,000 less than they did in Q3 2008.


RE: Clue 101
By TMoney468 on 1/15/2009 4:37:32 PM , Rating: 2
And this is because Apple sells the most units in Q3, the back-to-school period.


RE: Clue 101
By jonmcc33 on 1/16/2009 7:41:32 AM , Rating: 2
Q3 2008 was followed by Q4 2008, which included Christmas, the holiday for spending if there is one.


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