Apple sells one in six US laptops
Mac resurgence?
Apple was the US' third biggest retail laptop vendor in June, market watcher NPD has revealed. The Mac maker is behind only HP and Toshiba, but ahead of Dell, Gateway and Lenovo.
NPD said by way of Computerworld that Apple took 17.6 per cent of the US laptop retail market in June, up from 14.3 per cent in May and pushing it past the previous number three, Gateway.
NPD only measures sales through retailers sales, so Apple's likely to have fared less well if the wider resale and direct-to-buyer channels are taken into account. However, figures released last month by market watcher IDC showed Apple's overall US market share, while only 5.6 per cent, nonetheless put it in joint third-place.
Both figures show Apple is clearly riding the wave of buyers shifting from desktops to laptops. It updated both its MacBook and MacBook Pro machines during Q2 - a move that NPD said had fuelled the jump in market share. It will also stand the Mac maker in good stead, the research company added, as the US market moves into the back-to-school sales period.
COMMENTS
The title is misleading since apple is still just a blip on the radar.
"NPD only measures sales through retailers sales, so Apple's likely to have fared less well if the wider resale and direct-to-buyer channels are taken into account."
Dell still ECLIPSES Apple because 99% of Dell's sales are direct and online. They only operate a sliver of retail stores. This may swing huge now that Dell is selling the bargain basement computers at Wal-Mart.
@Jonathan Tate
That does sound interesting - have you got the model number? Hoping it's available in the UK....
As alluded to above
Many will take comfort in the fact that Windoze can be installed on a Mac via Bootcamp/Parallels/Fusion etc and may start of using it relatively heavily (i did when i switched) but over time and further use with OS X most appreciate what it does better (sure there are some issues, some apps missing that would be really helpful, but that's more software developers rather than Apple) and will switch completely
I now only use Parallels to run SAP on it, and in Coherence mode it doesn't even appear as though i've booted into Windoze....
I'm a fully blooded Mac convert, and that's from the IT Manager in a pretty much totally Windoze environment. Many people ask me for recommendations and there have been very, very few occasions when i haven't suggested a Mac, for "normal" computer usage for your average home user (Web, Word Processing, Email) then a Mac is perfect, no spyware, adware, virii to contend with etc.. makes for a much more pleasing user experience.
It totally is FUD.
@Anonymous: You can disable the application cache and Aero. If you think it looks ugly and makes your computer circa 1999 run poorly, turn them off.
@Paul: Okay, well Safari is insecure. There, I made a barely substantiated statement. Happy?
@Matthew: Blaming Microsoft for including the protected video path in Vista simply isn't fair. It's not like they had any other choice if users wanted to watch Bluray or HD-DVD movies legally, something that Linux and OS X users will be missing out on.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Windows_Vista#Digital_Rights_Management
@David Austin: Your Dell account manager is a total moron. The only snag here is the processor, which if you really feel is absolutely necessary, you can select the cheapest processor and then purchase the 2.4GHz processor from a third party and have an official Dell technician install it for you (though if you're intelligent, you can install it yourself because as long as you don't botch it, it doesn't violate your warranty).
Here's the specs of a similar machine I just picked out for you:
2.2GHz Core 2 Duo
Same amount of memory
Same hard disk
Same optical drive capabilities
Same size display, with a 2 megapixel webcam
Same graphics chipset
Microsoft Windows Vista Business edition
Microsoft Office Professional 2007
Dell Wireless-N card
- and -
3 year warranty with accidental damage protection. Yes, you can intentionally drop this thing on concrete from 4 feet and Dell will fully cover it for 3 years from the shipping date.
Guess how much it cost? $2493. For reference, with only a 90 day support and 1 year warranty, your 2.4GHz Macbook Pro costs $2649. For a more direct comparison, a 2.2GHz Macbook Pro with the extended warranty costs $2573, but doesn't cover accidental damage.
And if you do what I suggested as far as buying the 2.4GHz separately, it'd be around $2770 with the processor from Newegg.com -- still a great deal if you consider that your 2.4GHz Macbook Pro with the extended warranty costs $2998 and doesn't cover accidental damage. Don't believe me on that? Directly from the fine print:
"b. Limitations The Plan does not cover: ... (ii) Damage to the Covered Equipment caused by accident, abuse, neglect, misuse"
Oh yeah, and you can install XP or Linux on it, or if you're adventurous, you could probably even install OS X, but why on earth would you want to do that?
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_Guides
Games
DirectX 10 card... maybe, But a card that will run oblivion at full specs.. no, and thats the problem.
