As we discussed last Friday, Apple has never
been a dominant player in the personal computer industry. However, that
doesn't mean they haven't been a significant player.
Apple was the first to offer color on a personal computer, and their
expansion bus architecture directly inspired IBM to offer standard expansion slots on their personal computer. Apple
was the first with an affordable floppy, and their Lisa was the first
PC with a graphical user interface and a mouse, which inspired
Microsoft to create Windows.
Macs were the first desktop computers to use 3.5" floppies, SCSI,
CD-ROM drives, built in networking, SIMMs, NuBus expansion slots,
trackballs in a portable, 802.11b and 802.11g wireless networking,
abandon the floppy, support DVD burning, and all sorts of other things.
If you're a longtime Mac user, you probably know the whole list.
Apple's significance doesn't come from their market share, which
peaked at just over 20% in 1984 and has never been higher than 12%
since then. According to Jeremy Reimer's Personal Computer Market
Share: 1975-2002, it's under 3% today.
Time and again Apple has led the industry, whether that was to adopt
3.5" floppies or SIMMs in the mid-80s or colorful cases in the late
1990s. And Apple has extended its influence well beyond the world of
personal computers. The FireWire bus they invented shows up on all the
good digital video cameras. The iPod has taken the MP3 market by storm.
And the Newton has inspired a decade of personal digital
assistants.
Just as the Mac's GUI lead to Windows, Apple's QuickTime has lead to
Real Player and Windows Media Player. iTunes and iMovies have their own
knockoffs on the Windows side. Shortly after the iBook shipped with
AirPort, Dell decided that it also had to offer a laptop with wireless
networking. Anything Apple does, the rest of the world wants to
copy.
In a world of ho-hum Windows computers where brand is generally
unimportant (Sony being a refreshing exception to the rule) and
everything is cobbled together from a pretty standard selection of
motherboards, CPUs, graphics cards, and cases, the Mac stands out.
Whether colorful, white, or gray, Macs are distinctive in appearance,
run a pair of unique operating systems that Windows just can't copy,
and generate the kind of brand loyalty that Gateway, Dell, and H-Paq
can only dream of.
Macs are different. The Mac OS is different. The best Mac software
is also different, like AppleWorks, which completely blew Microsoft
Works out of the Mac market, and FileMaker and Safari, Apple's savvy
new (still in beta) browser.
Apple is a niche player because most people are content with
mediocrity, don't know that Apple really is a viable alternative, or
can't afford a recent Mac. We can't do much about the mediocrity; we
can only wait for the worst of the PC makers to bury themselves under
warranty repairs and support costs.
The Switch campaign raises the Mac's profile as an alternative to
Windows PCs, although so many people still say, "Well, I'd use a Mac if
I worked with graphics." Apple does have a long ways to go to convince
PC users that Macs aren't just for DJs, students, artists, and people
overly frustrated with Windows. Macs do all the "regular stuff" that
Windows PCs do like email, browsing the Web, word processing,
spreadsheets, and on and on.
We can try to cajole Apple into producing a truly affordable
consumer Mac that could compete with the lower end of the PC world, but
that's all we can do. Until Apple realizes how much more successful the
Switch campaign would be with a lower priced Mac offering Apple's
reliability at a competitive price, Apple's niche will remain
small.
Low End Mac won't do much to increase Apple's market share. In a
world of 30 million Macs, only a quarter million visit our site in a
given month. And of those, only about one-half visit more than one page
or make more than a single visit.
Of course, we're not generally pushing new Macs. Or maybe I should
say, we're not pushing new Macs exclusively. After all, for some people
the latest models are the ones that best meet their needs.
But sometimes it's last year's model that provides the better value
- or something even older might be the solution that best fits their
budget while meeting their needs. And when someone buys a five-year-old
beige G3 (one of the most popular profiles on our site), that used sale
is never counted toward anybody's market share.
But it does grow the Apple market when someone comes to the Mac,
whether from the PC side or as someone buying their first computer.
Once they experience the general quality of Macs (and we do try to warn
them away from the handful of Road
Apples) and the friendly, pretty darn stable Mac OS, we think
they'll stick with the Mac for the long haul.
And we'll help them make the most out of their Macs, new or old,
with advice on hard drive, memory, CPU, video, and other upgrades.
We'll help those who can't afford an $800 iMac find something they can
afford and use it until it makes sense to replace it.
In a think different kind of way, a low-end consumer Mac would go
contrary to our mission, since it would really impact the used Mac
market and the older Macs that we know and love. On the other hand,
we'd just look it over, calculate the value equation, and tell our
readers how good a value the econoMac is and how they can get the most
out of it in coming years.
Like Apple, Low End Mac is a niche player
on the Mac Web, but having a small market doesn't mean either of us is
insignificant.
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We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986,
sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and
has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.
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Mac of the Day: Blue & White Power Mac G3, introduced 1999.01.05. The most colorful Power Mac introduced an innovative 'drawbridge' enclosure.
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat
Media. For price quotes and advertising information,
please contact
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Welcome Image and Text
We believe in the long term value of Apple hardware. You should be able to use your Apple gear as long as it helps you remain productive and meets your needs, upgrading only as necessary. We want to help maximize the life of your Apple gear.
at BackBeat Media
(646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.
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All of our advertising is handled by BackBeat Media. For
price quotes and advertising information, please contact
at BackBeat Media
(646-546-5194). This number is for advertising only.
standard expansion slots on their personal computer. Apple
was the first with an affordable floppy, and their Lisa was the first
PC with a graphical user interface and a mouse, which inspired
Microsoft to create Windows.
