Views from the Ivory Tower - August 2007
By Ted Bade
I truly never thought I would see the day when Apple’s market share approached double digits. I wasn’t being unfaithful to my favorite computer company, but being what I thought was logical. Most people don’t buy computers (or just about anything else for that matter), because it is the best of its type or the most sensible one to use. They do what their friends or those people they follow do. So many people bought Windows. That was my logic. I figured Apple’s market share would stay low.
Then came the iMac, which revolutionized the form of a computer. No longer was the machine a boring beige box; it became an elegant piece of artwork. Next, Apple created the iPod which is very popular. What began to happen and is still going on is that people are buying Apple products and finding they are not only elegant must have products, but they are very easy to use. One thing leads to another and an iPod buyer buys a Mac!
Recently USA Today reported in an article concerning the iPhone, that Apple’s computer market share in 2004 was about 3.2%, but in May of 2007 it was 7.6%. It seems like the iMac and the iPod have brought a lot of users to the Mac. So now I wonder, will the iPhone be a big enough hit to bring another couple of percentages to the Mac?
Perhaps the dream of Apple returning to above 10% of the market share will be seen in the next couple of years. I hope so. Back in the days when Apple was a bigger player there was a lot more activity in the Apple computer related markets. It would be nice to see that again. Lets hope!
iPhones selling like.… - Has Apple done it again or are people just purchase happy? It appears that Apple’s iPhone, released June 30th shattered AT&T’s sales predictions. Apparently, over “700,000 iPhones sold in the first weekend after it’s release. To compare “Apples” to other phones, the Motorola Razr which also had a lot of marketing expectations and excitement didn’t sell that many units in its first month.
According to a report found on the Bloomberg site, many stores sold their entire stock over the weekend. Apparently 95 out of 165 stores selling the iPhone sold out their entire stock.
All I can say is, “Wow”! Let’s hope these phones perform and goggle people as much as the iPod did.
More good news for Mac Gamers - I discovered another major announcement concerning games for the Macintosh platform. There is a company, GameTap, that provides an interface allowing people to play games via their web site. From what I can tell, this site gives members access to arcade and other types of PC games, which you play through the site (you don’t have the game on your computer.) In early July they released the ”lite” version of their interface program for Mac OS X (Intel Macs only), and promise to release the “premium” version later this year.
GameTap offers over 500 titles to play. You can either play “free” games that require only downloading the lite player and creating an account or pay for a premium membership which gives access to more games (and probably the better ones!). Take a look at their site if you have some time, it looks like there are a lot of interesting titles there to enjoy!
Great old software returns - Some of our older readers might remember Roger Wagner’s HyperStudio. For those who don’t remember, this application along with Apple’s own HyperCard, was based on the concept of sharing information before the Internet was so easily accessible. With it a user could meld the information they wanted to share with graphics, sounds, animation, and anything else that fits in the digital domain. The program was originally released for Apple’s IIGS computer and became a real hit with Schools because it allowed both educators and students to easily share complicated forms of information. When Macs started offering colors (yes, Macs were originally monotone!), they released HyperStudio for MacOS. Over the years, I would guess thousands of HyperStudio based stacks of information were created. Most of them were free for downloading and enjoying. It was a truly great product.
Recently, MacKiev bought the license to sell and upgrade Roger Wagner’s HyperStudio and will be making it available sometime this summer. Check out their web site for the latest details. http://www.mackiev.com/hyperstudio/index.html.
Another Apple Quarter ends and more good news - Apple posted the results of their third quarter for this year, and the results are good news for Apple fans and investors according to the information posted on the Apple web site concerning financial news.
To summarize the results: Apple posted a revenue of $5.41 billion and net quarterly profit of $818 million, which is $.92 per diluted share. Since the “market” had predicted a $5.28 billion profit and $0.72 per diluted share, this means Apple did better then the market prediction, which is always a very good thing! Apple’s gross margin was 36.9%, up from 30.3% in the same quarter last year.
They shipped 1,764,000 Macintosh computers representing a 33% growth over the same quarter last year and 9,815,000 iPods, representing a 21% growth. They also expect to have sold over 1 million iPhones by the end of the next quarter.
It appears that more and more Macs are being sold along with the iPod and the iPhone. These results are good news because it means that Apple is a strong company and that people continue to purchase their products. All Mac fans should be happy with this, because it means the Mac will be around for a long time to come!
Around the same time, Apple’s stock prices were teetering because things haven’t been going as well as expected for the iPhone. Apparently although Apple sold close to 1/2 million iPhones, AT&T only activated about 146,000 in the first couple of days since the iPhone release.
You know what I think? I think that people are more interested in the iPhone as a PDA and iPod with a nice screen then as a phone. I have felt, since the early days of the iPod that Apple needed to make one that included a larger screen for viewing images and movies. Many other people have thought Apple would do well to once again enter the PDA market. This lack of activation indicates a couple things.
First of all people might not be interested in the iPhone as a phone. Considering there is a hack that unlocks the iPhone features without activating it as a phone, I get the impression people are happy with that. There are probably a number of people who might be interested in the iPhone who would rather not leave their cell carrier. Another thing it indicates is that there were some issues with AT&T handling the activations. Apparently their equipment couldn’t handle the surge.
But it appears the iPhone is somewhat of a hit and it does appear to be a really quality piece of electronics. The biggest problem with a device like this is that it is tied to a particular carrier.
Perhaps Apple or someone else will resolve this issue and there will be more sales in the future.
Until Next Month, keep on enjoying your Mac!
