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Month January 2012

Entries 5 Total

Apple as top personal computer vendor

Jan 16, ’12 7:31 AM

“Yes. I think it’s possible if you integrate tablets”

- Meg Whitman, HP CEO in response to the question of whether Apple could overtake HP in computer sales in 2012.

via HP CEO Meg Whitman Admits Apple Could Surpass HP in 2012 | MacTrast.

However, according to Gartner, HP shipped 14.7 million PCs in the last quarter. While we don’t have the total global figure for Apple, my estimates are 5.2 million Macs and 14.7 million iPads, for a total of 19.9 million computers in the same period.

There might be an error in both Gartner’s and my numbers, but the gap of over five million in Apple’s favor is unlikely to disappear.

The history of shipments from these vendors  is shown below.

The market shares are also shown here:

I included the market shares thee years ago, and the rankings with the iPad excluded.[1] Apple went from 3.42% share at the end of 2008 to 5.6% share today excluding the iPad or 17.6% including the iPad. HP went from 19.3% in 2008 to 16% today or 13% if iPad is included.

Apple is ahead of schedule on their taking[2] the top spot in terms of units.

Notes:

  1. Although vendors other than Apple also sell tablets, their totals are unpublished and I am not aware of any estimates so. If anyone has seen estimates I would be happy to amend the data.
  2. Throughout the history of the industry, Apple never held the top spot.   The Apple II peaked at 15.8% in 1984 and the Mac at 12% in 1992.
Comments (142)

Is the iPad a PC?

Jan 12, ’12 8:17 PM

Gartner published its estimates for “PC” shipments during the fourth quarter. As I’ve done in the past, I combined their estimates with known shipments from Apple and separated Apple’s performance from the Windows-based market.

I also take into consideration the iPad as a potential competitor for computing purchases. Apple will report fourth quarter results including Mac and iPad shipments in less than two weeks but I am using my own estimates until then.

Here is how the platforms grew over the last few quarters (all figures are global):

The Gartner data implies

Continue Reading… Comments (130)

[Sponsor] HelpSpot & Open Source Help Desk List

Jan 12, ’12 3:57 PM

“Openness” has become a politicized word. It’s been pulled in multiple directions and diluted into near meaninglessness. However, open source is a crucial foundation to much of computing today. It’s like reinforcing bar (rebar) in a building–mostly invisible but providing the necessary structural strength.

Like rebar’s however, open source is typically the least glamorous part of software and often powers the lower levels of a software stack making it easy to ignore. The other non-glamorous but essential part of the software industry is support and the “Help Desk”. Without this service, consumers would simply stop consuming.

So with this in mind, I’m grateful to HelpSpot for sponsoring Asymco this week.   Six years ago they created Open Source Help Desk List to assist companies looking for an open source help desk software solution. It’s been very successful, serving as an invaluable tool for thousands of companies.

They hope it can help you as well.

If you’d prefer a professionally developed and supported help desk application, then give them a look: HelpSpot: Help Desk Software

P.S. Check out the newest project they’re working on, the PHP framework Laravel.

Comments (1)

5by5 | The Critical Path #21: Negative Costs

Jan 11, ’12 10:40 PM

Continuing their discussion of the creative side of Hollywood accounting, Dan and Horace take a look at the way income from movies is distributed and why no movies ever make money. The observations sharpen focus on the over-arching influence distribution has on the creative process.

5by5 | The Critical Path #21: Negative Costs.

 The following chart is a visualization designed to accompany the podcast:

Compensation based on “Net income” depends on there being a surplus rather than deficit. The problem is that the Fees and claims on income increase as they are defined as a percent of total income so the goal of break-even is a moving target.

The Negative Costs are approximated by the production costs as discussed and visualized in the previous podcast here.

Comments (52)

Enter, Prise

Jan 10, ’12 11:38 PM

Historically, Apple’s sales to business and government buyers of personal computers have been, in a word, minuscule. To put a number on it, Forrester published data where the estimated value of those sales in 2007 were 2.8%. A figure lower than Apple’s overall market share of PCs in that time frame.

Things did not improve much in the years following. The following chart shows the split between Windows and Mac OS X for the value of enterprise computers sold in 2007 through 2009.

Apple’s share of value went from 2.8% to 3.7%, an increase of 1 point of share, but one which in real terms was not very valuable because the overall market declined due to recession. Revenues for Apple were basically flat at around $2 billion each year as shown in the second chart.

However, the situation changed very rapidly in the last two years.

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