Comparing apples with apples
The revenue share for Apple Macs sold through US retail in October was 47.7 percent, up from 33 percent a year ago, according to figures from market researcher NPD acquired by tech blog betanews.
The writer was clearly pleased with his scoop, explaining: "NPD did not issue a report with this data. I asked for it. That's what reporters do - ask questions." And his journalistic hunger was apparently not sated by merely getting the figures. Remorselessly, he proceeded to subject Stephen Baker, NPD's VP of industry analysis, to further interrogation.
"You're comparing the [iMac] launch month this year to the month last year when people stopped going into stores to buy things," said Baker. "To some extent it's a little bit apples and oranges." So to speak. He also stressed that Windows PC sales declined in October in anticipation of the 22 October launch of Windows 7.
On the flip-side, it looks like this trend was well underway before October, so it can't just be written-off as an anomaly. Funnily enough, Apples revenue share in laptops was actually down year-on-year Considering the average selling prices on Windows mobile PCs continue to drop, thanks to the popularity of netbooks, this implies the volume of Macbooks sold took a sharp drop.
Apple continues to get consumers to pay far more for computers with an Apple logo on it than they would for any other equivalently specced machine. This is thanks to its software, design, the halo effect of its consumer electronics strength and the personal statement Mac users seem to think they're making by owning one.
It's easy to scorn Apple for its smug marketing and fundamentalist following, but there isn't a PC vendor in the world that wouldn't give its right arm for those kinds of margins.
