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Apple sold a whopping 19 million Macs in FY 2014, setting new records to celebrate its thirtieth anniversary year. Apple shipped 5.52 million Macs in its October quarter – an all-time record, up 21% year-on-year. This is a radical turnaround since 1997, when Dell boss Michael Dell infamously said he would have “shut down” Apple in order to return money to the shareholders.
The historical roots of Apple’s turnaround lie in Steve Jobs’ decision to adopt OS X, Intel processors, embrace of the internet and the success of its retail outlets, music, services and mobile products.
According to IDC’s quarterly PC tracker, Apple achieved its highest-ever PC market share in the October quarter. “These results are remarkable given the contraction in the global PC market and we now gain market share for 33 of the last 34 quarters,” said Apple CFO, Luca Maestri.
“We’re especially proud,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO, “of our Mac results considering the overall contraction (1.7%) of the global PC market this year. We achieved our highest quarterly market share since 1995. “Being up 21% in a market that’s shrinking doesn’t get better than that.”
Macs took a whopping 13.4% of the US PC market and Apple now sits in the number five spot when it comes to global PC shipments, behind Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer. “The company’s steady growth, along with recent price cuts and improved demand in mature markets, has helped it to consistently outgrow the market,” IDC said.
Apple continues to reap dividends on strength of its product range. The faster (and cheaper) MacBook Air, the faster (and cheaper) iMac and the critically acclaimed 5K iMac all meet the needs of customers seeking quality. Apple’s recently upgraded sub-£500 Mac mini and powerful Mac Pro are also winning hearts – and Mac users punch above their weight.
While Macs account for a small percentage of overall PC sales, NetMarketshare figures show OS X Yosemite already accounts for 3.48% of the overall PC OS market, while OS X Mavericks stands at 2.12%.
In contrast, despite the theoretical marketshare disparity of PCs in comparison to Macs, Microsoft’s latest OS Windows 8.1 (which shipped October 2012 – a year before Mavericks) holds 8.3% share with an additional 3.28% on Windows 8. This means just 11.58% of PC users employ recent Windows operating systems, while Mac users account for circa 5.6% of overall PC users. This suggests that for every two active
“This incredible line of products and the ecosystem that supports them is something only Apple can create.” Tim Cook
Windows users, there’s one active Mac user – and Apple’s crowd is growing each quarter.
“As the low end of the PC business is swallowed by cheap devices, the only people left in the market for traditional PCs will be professionals,” IDC analyst, Tom Mainelli told the New York Times. Pro users are willing to pay for Apple solutions. “I think they’ll continue to go up,” he observed.
2015 should see even more success for the platform, as Apple deploys Intel’s powerful 14-nanometer Broadwell processors. These power efficient chips are expected to be 30% faster than those used in Macs right now. These faster Macs, in combination with OS X’s well publicised Continuity feature, should help Apple sell Macs to millions of satisfied iPhone users, who now recognise the longer usable life of Apple’s platform in contrast to low cost PCs. “This incredible line of products and the ecosystem that supports them is something only Apple can create,” Tim Cook said.