Skip to main content

Mac > News

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 US consumers are most likely to choose Mac

More US consumers plan to buy a Mac in the next 90 days than any other brand

Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

  • Email to a friend
  • Print this article
  • Bookmark this page
  • RSS feed

More US consumers plan to buy a Mac in the next 90 days than any other brand, according to a ChangeWave Research survey of over 4,000 US Americans conducted earlier this month.

Of the consumers polled by ChangeWave Research who said they expect to buy a personal computer in the next three months, 32 per cent plan to purchase a Mac. The closest rival was Dell, which accounted for 28 per cent of planned purchases.

Apple was also the only vendor whose plan-to-buy share increased from July in both desktops and laptops. In the former, Apple gained 3 percentage points, climbing to 30 per cent from 27 per cent last month. On the laptop front, Apple increased it share by 2 points, reaching 32 per cent, compared to 30 per cent in July.

Both the desktop and laptop numbers were records for Apple in the long-running ChangeWave consumer spending surveys.

Dell's desktop share, meanwhile, increased by three points, climbing to 28 per cent. But the company lost 4 points in the laptop race, down to 28 per cent from 32 per cent in July.

Hewlett-Packard Co., however, was decidedly in decline. Planned HP desktop purchases were off 3 points from the month before, down to 17 per cent, while planned notebook buys dropped 4 points to 20 per cent.

"Apple's reached the tipping point," said Paul Carton, ChangeWave's research director. "Where the early adopters and the discretionary spenders were leading the charge, now as we go into the 30 per cent range [for planned purchases], the change to Apple looks permanent. What we have in the end, actually we're sort of there now, is that buying an Apple is as normal as buying a Dell or an HP [computer] in America."

Carton said Apple's consumer satisfaction scores and the "halo effect" of the iPhone would continue to pump up the company's sales. Apple trounced rivals such as Dell, HP, Acer and Lenovo on customer satisfaction, he said. In the August survey, 81 per cent of people who had bought a Mac in the past 90 days said they were "very satisfied" with the purchase. In comparison, 58 per cent of Dell buyers, 57 per cent of HP buyers, 53 per cent of Acer buyers and 48 per cent of Lenovo buyers said they were similarly satisfied.

"You want to see what a halo effect looks like? Take a look at last year," said Carton, 6.5-point jump in the planned purchase share last summer, immediately after the first-generation iPhone debuted.

That halo effect continues, Carton said. In the August survey, 17 per cent of those polled said that they were more likely to buy a Mac desktop or laptop because of the iPhone 3G, the model Apple launched last month.

"This year's halo isn't to the degree of last year's, but in this economic environment and the fact that Apple's hitting its biggest numbers ever, means it's enough to see Apple significantly outperform expectations going forward," said Carton.

"Everything else equal, Apple's outperforming in an incredibly difficult consumer spending environment," Carton observed.

During Apple's most recent quarter, which ended June 30, the company sold a record 2.5 million Macs.

Email A Friend

Email this article to a friend or colleague:



PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

<<prev article | back to news index | next article>>

Question of the day!

Mark Hattersley
Editor in Chief

Do you share your creations online?

Question of the day!

Do you share your creations online?

% of Macworld readers agree with you

Yes
TBC
No
TBC

What do you create and how do you share it?

124 characters remaining

Follow the conversation at @TabletChat

paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

Yes. I usually put them up on my #deviantart account for feedback on how to improve.RT @spialelo

Comments received


Andy said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

It's heartwarming to know that the great unwashed are finally catching on to that we Macheads have known for a while (I'm joking about the great unwashed - I meant to say, the slaves to Windoze are breaking free of their chains)!

Toni said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

You are joking - no company (and it is large companies that count) would touch Apple with a barge pole. I work for one of the UK's biggest outsourcing companies and only has 1 mac, which is used for testing web pages.

Overpriced equipment, overpriced support and limited corporate software.

People say they like them but when it comes down to spending money they will go for a cheaper, compatible option to the one they use at work.

Blad_Rnr said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@Toni

Where in this article was Gregg speaking of the Enterprise? He was talking about a survey from ChangeWave Research in regards to American consumer computer purchases. Did you completely miss that?

Toni said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

So polite, you are not from around here are you. Read the last paragraph.

Blad_Rnr said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@Toni

Where in this article was Gregg speaking of the Enterprise? He was talking about a survey from ChangeWave Research in regards to American consumer computer purchases. Did you completely miss that?

Blad_Rnr said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@Toni
Last paragraph: "During Apple's most recent quarter, which ended June 30, the company sold a record 2.5 million Macs."

Not sure how the Enterprise fits in that sentence. I guess I don't understand your premise that people say they want to buy Macs...and then don't? Apple is selling Macs in record numbers. Is this all just a fantasy? Apple is really NOT selling that many Macs?

This is all just your opinion. Where are your facts that dispute the article?

Mike in Philly said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@Toni

I understand your point that people have tended to base PC purchases on the PCs they used at work. Several trends change this:

Satisfaction with Windows is going down as the general population becomes more technologically literate. The work PC experience is less and less likely to encourage people to want to repeat it at home. Most people have actually tried it at this point, and have found out Windows is much less useful without dedicated support staff to call on for help.

People don't only make decisions based on what the enterprise purchases, they will ask technologically literate coworkers--tech support staff--what they recommend, and many, many of us prefer to use Macs at home, or at least have learned that recommending Macs means fewer questions after the purchase.

Experience with Apple's non-PC products--iPods and iPhones--helps people understand that the talk about Macs being very easy to use is not hype. This is the halo effect, and it is real.

Brian said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

Satisfaction with Windows? You are kidding, right? No one is satisfied with Windows, they are just stuck with it.

It's a rip-off of Mac, always has been, but never a very good one.

omiaig said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

The only thing that is selling Mac is the ability to run Windows. Most new Mac users are wiping OSX off the machine and are running Windows soly.

J said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

Commodity box vendors may keep high volumes due to the desire for undifferentiated inexpensive computers for various industrial purposes, but this isn't where the profit growth is. For example, Dell is a commodity vendor without an economic moat, and should not be bought (as a company; the products are another story not argued here):
jadedconsumer.blogspot.com/2008/08/dell-wheres-competitive-advantage.html

By contrast, Apple sells a differentiated product and benefits from both pricing advantages (it owns the operating system and need not pay per-computer licensing fees to third parties in order to ship hardware that can run computer programs) and differentiation (which is evidenced by its satisfaction scores, and contributes to its pricing ability and thus to its profits).

Whatever Apple's growth turns out to be, it won't be growth into low-margin commodities fought over by beige-box makers: it'll be among profitable market segments that will add to Apple's bottom line.

James Katt said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

J, you're wrong.

Most people buy a Mac and use Mac OS X.

To buy a Mac and wipe it clean to install windows means buying Windows at FULL PRICE. This is rarely done since Windows at full price is very expensive. AND, it won't have all the drivers needed to run on Mac hardware.

Mr Coolness said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

32% buying a Mac....that means the other 68% are buying a Windows machine,...sucks it Mac fan boys. Apple sucks, always has. And Windows is a ripoff of Xerox, not Apple, don't you Mac jerks know your history?

Blad_Rnr said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@James Katt
Good point. And once someone starts using a Mac they GENERALLY will stop using Windows. The Mac growth right now is phenomenal. I don't think any sane person would deny that. Even the Enterprise growth is outstanding considering Apple is not doing much to grow it.

JohnnyMnemonic said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

One thing PC users do much better than Mac users?

STFU about their eff'ing machines.

Dave said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

Thank you CaptnObvious. What was obvious to you and me seems to have gone right over the heads of the macworld people and the rest of the mac fanboys.

The title of this article is misleading and the content is a fraud. The headline should read "Less than 1/3rd of people who are planning on buying a computer in the next 3 months are choosing Mac"

That's quite a bit different, isn't it.

J said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@James Katt: You are attributing omiaig's comment to me. I argued Dell is a commodity box maker without a particularly profitable future because it has no sustainable advantage, as Apple (and HP) has.

I've never seen anyone buy a Mac to run a Microsoft operating system, though I know of some who do Unix development on them. This latter group is hardly a significant fraction of the market.

J said on Fri, 29 Aug 2008

@Dave Most are choosing non-Mac, but more choose Mac than any other. Thus, the most likely single brand is Mac. It's definitely not clear, but it's not a fraud, either.

Expect to see more Macs
jadedconsumer.blogspot.com/2008/06/selling-apples-all-over-world.html

Neil Anderson said on Sat, 30 Aug 2008

The number of Macs on campus is amazing compared to just a couple of years ago.

NB said on Sat, 30 Aug 2008

@Dave
I totally agree. Without seeing the questions (often loaded) these figures mean nothing. It would make a good Sun headline.

It has been known in the IT industry for a few years that PC sales have slowed, but only because saturation has almost been reached and people are upgrading rather than buying new.

MWD_Dave said on Sat, 30 Aug 2008

Hmmmm... I don't know. I definitely think Mac machines are becoming more popular. I know several people who given the choice between Vista and OSX have chosen OSX.

That being said, I personally hate both of the above mentioned operating systems.

OSX has pretty decent resource management, but still will be happy to crash like it's Windows counter-part when used with heavy loads. It's "way" less secure than Windows and the only reason virus's aren't a problem for it is simply that coders don't write for it. That and working around in it is a real pain. To uninstall some programs, simply "click" and drag that program directory to the trash... but don't do that with the wrong program of course. That's OK, just look up for directions on the net every time you want to remove something. Pfffft! Oh and lets not get started on ITunes or should I say MAC(Realplayer) which installs a bunch of xxxx software on your computer whether you want it to or not.

MWD_Dave said on Sat, 30 Aug 2008

Vista on the other hand is a bloated piece of over engineered software that seems like it's trying to imitate OSX without the resource efficiency. (And I love the "Accept or Deny" over and over and over.)

With regards to hardware, as usual, Mac hardware is definitely over priced. They're the only company I know of that was still selling laptops last year with a CD burner rather than a dvd burner. Come on...

And yet, one can't argue that the MacBook Pro is an extremely nice, slim notebook that packs a lot of nice hardware in it. Other things like the magnetic power connector and illuminating keyboard make for a couple of really nice features.

So in the end it comes back to the fact that yah, Mac's have their plus's, aaaand their minus's. Just like PC machines. Touting the positives of either one while ignoring the minuses is just dumb.

Check out this article for a chuckle:
www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

MWD_Dave said on Sat, 30 Aug 2008

PS - J & James Katt - I bought a MacBook Pro because it had the best video card in a 15.4" notebook you could get at the time, while still being very portable, (unlike the Alienware m15x or Clevo's m860tu). However, I run Windows XP exclusively. I know a couple of guys who do the same. ;)

Mick said on Mon, 01 Sep 2008

@MWD_Dave - I take my hat off to you sir. I know of another two or three people who use the MacBook Pro in the same way. I have a dual boot because OSX cant run all the software I need and I got the laptop cheap.

Disclaimer
Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Macworld. Macworld accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content.
Click here to read the house rules.

Click here for the latest reader comments

Latest News


More news...