Most market pundits like to claim that Apple has 3-5% of the PC market. Like most statistics, these numbers are either misleading or simply false.
These figures aren't a share of the PC-using public, but a share of monthly/quarterly/annual shipments. Mac advocates highlight this point, and sometimes claim that Apple's share of the using public is closer to 10% or perhaps even higher. (All speculation, since these figures are quite difficult to pin down.)
But the size of the Mac-owning market is growing. I bought my iBook a couple of years ago because I knew so many people who were happy with Mac laptops and OS X. Today, another friend of mine asked me the key question: iBook or PowerBook? And that's how the Mac market grows -- happy users encourage others to go Mac, the market grows, and the virtuous cycle continues.
Finally, it's important to remember that Mac users tend to keep their machines longer. When I was using x86 laptops, I would routinely replace machines every other year or so. I can see myself keeping this iBook for 3-4 years, a behavior quite common among Mac users.
Thanks for listening. Just had to get that off my chest.
Re:3 to 4 years?
brianiac on 2004-02-23T19:03:08
Ouch! Don't let any web developers hear you say that! There is no standards-compliant web browser for OS 9 (and OS 8 didn't even come with TCP/IP).
Spending twice the development time trying to coax functionality out of MacIE or even (shudder) Netscape 4 [washes hands] is infuriating! Mozilla 1.2.1 is the last OS 9 release, and is OK, but abandoned.
Re:3 to 4 years?
jmm on 2004-02-23T21:58:19
OS 9? OS 8? You're a few years off - my 7200 is still running OS 7 (7.6 I think - the last one before Apple starting selling the free-for-life upgrades). They're no longer selling any OS that will run on this system. You did hit Netscape 4 on the head... for most sites it works fine.Re:3 to 4 years?
mdxi on 2004-02-24T05:02:28
No, OS/System 7 didn't come with TCP/IP. One of the massive improvements that came with OS 8 was a native TCP stack, including PPP support (yay no more shitty FreePPP!)Re:3 to 4 years?
jmm on 2004-02-25T19:28:38
Um, I've been running TCP/IP for years on OS 7. For many of those years I was using PPP, but for the last 5 years it has only been using the LAN TCP/IP connection. I think I had TCP/IP on OS 6 actually. It required installing an extra package from Apple as I recall, but it was there.Re:3 to 4 years?
pudge on 2004-02-25T20:09:56
TCP/IP was part of the System 7.5 package (though it was an optional install on the CD!). MacTCP was available before that, separately. What Mac OS 8 represented was a move to OpenTransport.Poor little iCab.
schwern on 2004-02-28T21:25:16
iCab, the little browser that could have, would beg to differ. It even comes with a built in "as you browse" HTML syntax checker, Emcascript (what everyone else calls Javascript), tabbed browsing, ad filtering, Javascript behavior filtering, the ability to emulate certain popular IE and Netscape formatting bugs and my favorite feature: you can set it so animiated GIFs do not loop!There is no standards-compliant web browser for OS 9But since your definition of a "standards-compliant" web browser doesn't include Mozilla, it sounds like you're holding to the old adage, "the wonderful thing about standards is there's so many to choose from."
You're thinking of System 7.(and OS 8 didn't even come with TCP/IP).Re:Poor little iCab.
brianiac on 2004-02-29T06:32:02
iCab certainly understands the specs, but doesn't always implement them, at least not when compared to Mozilla, Opera, or Safari. I do love the automatic validation, and that iCab was the first browser to offer a <link> toolbar, but I don't think I could use it as my primary browser.
I certainly do include Mozilla as standards-compliant. I think Firefox, in particular, can't be beat! However, as I mentioned, it has been abandoned for the 68K platform, and there have been a large number of fixes since 1.2.1.
Re:Maybe...
Matts on 2004-02-23T20:35:13
I'd have to agree with you (despite being a Mac owner). I also consider the huge numbers of businesses with x86 machines everywhere. In 10 years in the working world I've never once seen a Mac business place - everywhere has x86 PeeCees. Replacing that level of hardware is never going to be easy.
I personally think Apple should start doing bigger educational discounts and really try and take back the edu market. That's the perfect grass roots place to start IMHO. But what do I know - I'm just a humble hacker.Re:Maybe...
ziggy on 2004-02-23T20:59:55
It may already be too late to take back the edu market.A friend of mine is a graphic designer. She's thinking about buying a PowerBook, but realistically, she can't. Her toolchain is firmly entrenched on Windows (Photoshop, Freehand, etc.), and she's sunk a decent bit of coin on software. If she upgrades to an x86 PC, she can use her current software, or perhaps upgrade one or two packages. If she gets a Mac, she needs to spend thousands on buying new copies.
There are a few niggles in there. She might be able to upgrade to Mac versions, or her licenses may not legally transfer to a new machine. But for all intents and purposes, she has throw much more money at a Mac than a new PC.
Macs aren't the perfect solution for everyone. They never were. Switching works for those who can start with a fully clean slate on a new machine, are able/willing to bring their tools with them, or use new tools to get their jobs done. But there's a huge market for whom the necessary tools demand using Windows.
