Apple Dominates "Premium PC" Market 475
itwbennett writes "Macs made up a whopping 91 percent of the $1,000-and-up computer market in June. Not so long ago, $1,000 got you an entry-level machine. Today the average computer sells for $701, while the average Windows machine sells for only $515. Still, Macs only make up 8.7% of PC sales. But is that really such a bad position to be in? Consider an Apples to Apples, that is, Macs to iPhones comparison: the iPhone takes only a sliver of the phone market but a much larger share of the profits."
9/10 Dollars, not 91% of computers (Score:2, Informative)
Brick and mortar only (Score:5, Informative)
These numbers only reference brick and mortar retail sales. 3 out of the last 4 machines I bought were purchased from the manufacturer's website, customized to my specs, and only one of those was under $1000. They wouldn't have been included in these sorts of 'selective statistics'
As for $1000+ machines, it doesn't cover servers/workstations either (which you wouldn't buy over the counter anyway).
What this says to me:
1) Apple has a decent retail store presence :)
2) Macs are frakkin' expensive
3) By selectively applying filters to your stats, you can say whatever you want. Ladies, I have the biggest dick you'll ever see (in this room/of all males within a five foot radius/for the next five minutes).
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:5, Informative)
So you can buy 50 Dell workstations for $1100, and along comes someone buying 12 high end Mac Pros for, say $5,000 (not a price comparison, don't go biting, fanboys) and voila, according to this study they have "more share" than Dell, as a result?!?
I think not.
My Time is worth something (Score:5, Informative)
Both at work and at home. I don't have to reinstall my OS at least once a year, run defrag on a monthly basis, worry about anti-virus updates every week, or spend hours trying to find and compile drivers for some piece of hardware as I always seem to with Linux even today. It just works. That's what I want, and I'll pay the price difference upfront. I got a good 4 years out of my old PowerBook. It needs a new power adaptor (fell on a ceramic tile floor and busted). but should still work and my QuadCore PowerMac G5 is still going strong and it's 4.5 years old. Most I've done to it is add an extra 500GB internal to store video files for video editing. (before external drives came down in price).
I now have a MacBook Pro provided by work. Does everything I want and can even boot into XP if I need too for testing (or to play an occasional old game from my PC collection).
Re:In technology... (Score:3, Informative)
While Macs have a certain appeal to them that is aesthetic, their usability has not gone up in the enterprise, nor in the home market.
Where do you get that idea from? My whole company switched to Macs and productivity is up as we spend so much less time on desktop maintenance. In the last few years most of my friends have switched to Macs and they all say they're easier to use. I know one high level executive who's arguing with his IT department to let him use his Mac and iPhone on the corporate network because he prefers their usability and productivity.
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:2, Informative)
easy removal of power connector in case of tripping - Mixed blessing. You deal less damage in the event of accidental disconnection but the connector experiences more wear during regular use. MagSafe has spring set connector pins and Apple's power cord is very poorly manufactured, prone to fraying and developing shorts. Unless you habitually trip over your power cord a barrel connector is going to last a lot longer, and it can carry more current.
accelerometers to shut the hard drive off if the laptop falls - A lot of laptops have this feature now, including Thinkpads.
backlit keyboards that have a sensor to automatically come on - My Thinkpad has an overhead light so I can read papers as well as the keyboard.
automatic screen dimming at low light levels - My iPhone has the same feature. I don't think I've ever been in a situation where it's been useful.
single piece aluminum frame construction for less stress on the motherboard (the most common point of failure of a laptop, in my experience) - Aluminum is a really soft metal. Most higher-end laptops these days use a magnesium alloy chassis and HIPS, which is a lot more structurally sound even though (or because) it might flex a bit. They also have more favorable thermal properties - i.e. a Thinkpad isn't going to vent its heat directly into your groin, while an aluminum Macbook will.
custom battery arrangement to maximize useful lifetime but leave a smaller dimensional footprint. - Laptop manufacturers always make the enclosure, it's just the cells that are outsourced. There's nothing inherently more customized about Apple's battery arrangement than Dell's, although Dell is more likely to use a conservative design.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:3, Informative)
Re:A US-only thing (Score:3, Informative)
WTF?
Do you live in the same Europe I do?
Most people want the cheapest solution availiable, that is why all those netbooks are huge in Europe and you've got lots of discount PCs for 250-300 Euros.
Only crazy gamers pay more.
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:4, Informative)
"Unless you habitually trip over your power cord a barrel connector is going to last a lot longer, and it can carry more current."
I kill magsafe connectors in about a year. My current one is still going after a year and a half, which is impressive.
I used to kill barrel connectors at about six month intervals.
I don't see any reason why the magsafe connector should be less durable. They never fail in the connector anyway, but rather where the wire enters the connector. If anything, since the majority of people don't seem to follow mom's "never pull on the cord when unplugging something!" advice, the magsafe probably results in less wear since it takes less force to pull it out.
Plus it's saved my present notebook from at least half a dozen plunges to the floor. And the one before that from a few as well.
Re:My Time is worth something (Score:3, Informative)
Every piece of anti-virus software under the sun updates itself
Until the subscription runs out. Antivirus software with a better detection rate than ClamWin or Avast costs about $30 per year.
completely without any human intervention, at some god awful time of night as to avoid doing it while you may be using your computer.
I thought we were supposed to be green by turning off the PC at night. Does antivirus software boot the PC or wake the PC from hibernation to complete the update?
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:2, Informative)
I find a backlit keyboard more useful for finding the key I want in a dim room (in case I'm trying for an esoteric keybinding). People who aren't touch typists may find the feature much more useful (and laptop keyboards always have different layouts than fullsize ones anyway). If I have papers, I'm usually in a lit room anyway.
It saves battery life. Not something someone would notice but it's there.
On my desktop, my sceens don't dim, so at night, I can't take the brightness in a dark room and always have to switch a single 23w (100w eq) CFL on somewhere in the room to compensate. That feature would be useful there.
cen u reed? (Score:3, Informative)
Parent clearly states MacBooks and iMacs. The closest he comes to saying "pro" is when he says "pro"blem and "benefit."
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:3, Informative)
Those scientists usually tell you which part of your claim they don't believe AND what they believe in return. [Citation Needed] is just a pathetic attempt at a thought-terminating cliche used as a bare assertion fallacy.
Re:A US-only thing (Score:3, Informative)
WTH? Even in so-called "rip-off" Britain, mainstream desktop PCs are below £500 (and in many cases far less), many laptops are also now also below £500 with netbooks even cheaper.
But Macs? Nowhere to be seen. I believe the cheapest starts at £500, with a bottom of the range Mac Mini, featuring outdated laptop specs.
Yes, prices may be more expensive here in Europe, but everything is inflated, including Apple.
Re:Premium price, not premium PC (Score:3, Informative)
Bad assumption. Macbook is 3 screws to remove cover, and drive slides out. Then there's the usual 4 screws holding the drive rails on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2CxSAVwFqE [youtube.com]
MacBook pro is even less. 1 Screw to remove the drive. Then the usual 4 screws for the drive rails.
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/09/07/25/1648208/Apple-Dominates-Premium-PC-Market?art_pos=4 [slashdot.org]
There's NOTHING annoying about a monocoq case. It's superior in every way to any other laptop case. The fact that you try to find some irrelevant and incorrect objection involving screw counts betrays the worthlessness of all your objections.
Re:Coming soon... (Score:3, Informative)
Well, you're entitled to your own opinion. Snow Leopard is laying the base for future versions of OS X. There won't be a lot of visible enhancements in Snow Leopard, but there are changes under the hood. Plus the OS gets smaller.