Reports: Apple slipped to 4th place in Q4 U.S. sales

As a live long PC user from the Dos days, I went to Vista after my Dell motherboard went out on a 5 year computer. Frankly, I reaaly like Vista and the Aero set up. I love the layout and find the features very practical. The Vista Media Center has been pulled and put into centralized platform. Unfortunately is was not fully developed whn it was released and the Graphics/video and sound software system formally in WAL were removed because the company figured they would be included in the media Center when completed. As a result you have Video/Sound/Graphics hardware that is vista certified, but software that has not been developed tested and integrated into the Media Center. There are problems like this across the board I agree. But If you look at the Vista software now, vs 6 months ago, you will see small changes near the start button, driver issues smoothing out and there is no doubt that Vista has the ability to be a very fine and leading edge O/S. Graphic and Sound card manufacturere have moved a lon ways to developing integrated solutions and have gotten about 80% complete, but the last 20% is going to be harder than the first 80%. Because of this some Film Editing software and graphics software doesn’t work perfectly with the O/S. I have also tried altering the shared vs dedicated RAM, but still experienced problems with time lag on things I could easily do on Windows 2000 or XP.

I purchase my computer from Costco which provides free tech support and found myself calling them regularly. They have access to Microsoft and Manufacturer senior support techs if they run into a problem and did a great job helping me. I got into the registry to enable my e-mail web links to go to Firefox and not Explorer that kept crashing and shutting down.

Because of the time I’ve been spending I was forced to try a MAC. In look at the MAC, I discovered the $200 software I was looking for and wasn’t working as well on Vista, was not a good a the intergrated software already on a PC. When I looked at the hardware components on a MAC, I found them to be of higher quality graphics and sound cards and running great with a better looking screen. I was told that MAC actually run Vista and XP better, because they perform faster using their OS.

I was also fortunate enough to get a MAC Pro for $1500.00 out the door because it was a model that was just discontinued and would be replaced by a 2.4 GHz model and I didn’r require a TV tuner or Memory slots because it used firewire.

I now have a MAC and today is my first day trying it. The MAC is more appealing to eye, and I have just loaded the OS Leopard and in the process of adding 58.5MB of updates. It seems like a nice system, but I have no prior MAC knowledge. Is it better than XP, I’m not sure. Is it better than what Vista is suppose to be, it seems like there are a lot of trade offs.

Do I hate MS or Vista or think it’s horrible? No, I do not. I wouldn’t mind trying it in the future when the development is complete. In my case I didn’t have time to wait.

The main people losing here are the Box Makers/computer manufactures. Because they must endure more problems associated with Vista and field the abuse for in industry they love and have a passion for.

The problem the MS has are companies that because of the economy or lack of development on MS part, hardware manufactures have not all gotten around developing software to run on Vista. At the same time people are rushing to try to integrate MS Office packages with their OS. When that happens, other OS will be more competitive and there’s one big reason for Business users to try different OS. At the same time MS is rushing to release their next OS Vienna and are again talking abut stripping off more off their plan for earlier release.

The longer I’m with Apple and their OS, the greater the possibility I will say longer.

I have no dog in the fight. I am just trying to get the best value for my dollar

I am an IT professional and still strongly believe that neither apple hardware nor software is superior to Windows. Apple is fleecing people (mostly not computer savvy) by making them beleive that MAC OS is stable and hackproof.

Sadly, Apple’s direction is chosen by Steve Jobs. The quasi god of Apple is still following a dead end path of high end only hardware sales that led his NEXT computer company to failure in the 80’s. Now that Apple is using standard PC bits they have no excuse not to release an operating system for cheaper brands even if they designate a limited number of factory designs. Vista is the computer worlds fall of the Berlin wall and Apple needs to capitalize on it now! Crush Microsoft! Goliath is wounded and David has been training long enough.

How is it that Microsoft with 90% of the desktop market earns $13.7 billion and Apple with 6% earns $9.7 billion? Same with market cap - Microsoft is $300 billion and Apple is $140 billion. The desktop market share doesn’t translate into value.

Must be the hardware sales. Or is it?

Apple is 3X the value of Dell at $45 billion with 25% more total cash than Dell. Apple could BUY Dell without much trouble. I wouldn’t go ordering tombstones for Apple any time soon.

So I have to ask - with the same hardware used between them, why are Windows machines worth so much less than Macs? Does the Windows OS degrade the commodity hardware that much? Apparently it does.

Within the last three years, I personally know about 100 people who have ditched their PCs and bought Macs - mostly laptops - and they love them. Fifteen minutes with a Mac usually erases fifteen years of their sad devotion to Windows.

The latest switcher was yesterday when a guy I work with returned his second HP Vista laptop (after a week of struggling with both of them) for a full refund and will now buy a Mac laptop. Why? The Vista OS didn’t work and the HP tech support people told him to return it for a refund because… it will never work. Yup, HP told him to do that.

Why give up so quickly? Because we’ve got a lot of trouble free Macs where I work and he had no idea there was an alternative until he actually saw them. All it takes is exposure and you realize it has nothing to do with being a “cult”. You realize the blind “cult” followers actually belong to Microsoft, not Apple.

Three consecutive quarters of record Mac unit sales, record revenues, and record profits, yet Apple “disappoints”… Apple has 30.9% year-over-year growth vs 8.8% for the rest of the industry combined, yet Apple “disappoints”… Apple serves up yet another of their conservative guidance outlooks that is still 29% higher than the year-ago quarter, yet Apple “disappoints”… Then Apple will blow away that conservative guidance, as usual, and will have to endure the embarrassment of explaining yet another quarter of better-than-expected unit sales, revenues, and profits. yet, Apple will “disappoint”…

I have to laugh at those who say Mac’s are “closed and proprietary.” The only thing “closed and proprietary” about Mac’s are their logic boards. I don’t care. I’ve never had one fail and processor upgrades are a rip-off. You can run X-Windows on Mac OS X (because, unlike Windows, it’s a UNIX variant) and there are plenty of open source recompiles for it. Windows, is the truly closed and proprietary system, but if you really want to, you can run it on a Mac.

All that aside, AAPL had been trading at a P/E of well over 30 for some time. A correction was in order.

But let’s not let logic and facts get in the way of negative spin and zealotry…

C’mon. Give the Windows drone a break. He’s done his bosses right by getting all of us to visit the website. I was sucked in far enough to post a comment. Good job Elmer! Click through is the real name of the game not facts or FUD.

But…..

For some reason, the press can’t stand it when Apple does well. Jobs takes what others has failed at and makes it beautiful and functional. Does it cost a little more? Yep. Does it actually work well? Yep. More than I can say for any other tech company. How do I factor this? Experience. I’ve had 22 Apples and 24 Windows/DOS computers in the last 24 years. Guess which ones I’m still using. PCs (which in reality Macs do fall into that category) don’t last. I have an Apple IIgs that I still do video overlay on when I need an 80’s retro look for projects. Look at how many programs are out there for Windows! I hear that alot, but honestly, how many word processors do you use? Games are where the PCs lead, but that puts them in the “Toy” category with the XBox360, which I love except that it crapped out after 9 months. My Nintendo 64 is still cranking away (gotta love GoldenEye). I’ve thrown away more PC’s because of hardware failures. When my iPod went into the weeds, I took it in, they gave me a new one. Try that with a home built PC. Currently I have 5 Macs in my studio. All are chugging away on projects. Real money projects. There is one PC. Guess what it does… Play GAMES!

Yeah there’s alot of hype around Apple’s new product announcements, but it’s well deserved. Not because they’re introducing anything new (its the same technology available to others), but because they’re introducing something that actually works, looks good, and will last for a long long time.

I recently got a WM 6 Samsung Blackjack II. Tidy little device, but have you ever tried to surf the web in WM 6? I’d rather shove hot fireplace pokers in my eyes. The live demos at the Apple store on the iPhone are much better. Although my primary motivation in the Blackjack was the keyboard, followed by price and 3G. Movies look horrible on it and audio is like a 1980 Chevette standard AM radio. It does what I want, though, so I’m mostly satisfied with it. I don’t need a multimedia device as a phone. If I did, I would have waited for the next iPhone. There’s a point there if someone is willing to think about it.

Dell/ACER/Gateway produce, well, junk. They’re still around (mostly through buyouts and mergers). They sell alot of junk. Apple produces elegant products. It doesn’t sell as much. Hasn’t for decades, but it’s still around. Their quality and reliability is first rate. It will be for a long long time. Like Microsoft will be around for a long long time. Dell probably will be too. Mostly because of the lowest common denominator factor.

Reality check! It’s not how much something costs or market share. It’s about appeal and adaptability. It works on both ends of the price/quality spectrum. Be careful on the low end though as your profit margins are razor thin. (Ask IBM and Gateway)

BTW, I also work in an IT industry administrating both Macs and PCs. We do have XServes in our enterprise, right next to our Dell servers. I’ve also purchased complete systems PCs and built my own. I’ve re-built Macs from the ground up and have dealt with their clones. I’m a Microsoft Certified Professional, a multimedia producer, and a real IT admin. I choose the right tool for the job. If it’s not games, it’s not a PC.

(P.S. I live in the midwest and those in the know pay well for their multimedia producers. I hate to think of what your corporate website looks like at minimum wage)

Please explain how Apple’s market share is declining when it is growing at 30%, which is faster than the industry as a whole? I have seen prior years where Apple was ranked in the bottom half of the top 10, but now they are ranked #4 in the US? Is this not evidence of market share growth?

When accounting for year over year growth for Acer, you need to add the combined results of both merged companies (including Gateway) to present the data accurately, not use a distorted number of 294% growth. This is hidden in the second chart where Acer’s actual merged growth is only 0.5%.

I saw similar inaccurate reporting during the HP/Compaq merger, when some uninformed journalists tried to distort the data to make it appear that HP was loosing most of its market share to Dell. In fact, HP came out ahead of Dell when complete data was presented for the merged companies in the following years.

The fact that Apple is now ranked #4 US shows that they continue to play an important but limited role in the industry.

Actually, the most newsworthy point of this article is that the new Acer (combined with Gateway) has displaced Lenovo (formerly IBM) to become one of the top 3 US PC vendors. What ever happened to Lenovo? Lenovo is now outranked by even Apple & Toshiba.

With Lenovo’s shrinking presence in the market, we are left with only two vendors with double-digit shipments & market share: Dell & HP. So the real market share fight is still between these two companies. And the company to watch is Acer, to see if they can get into the double-digit space that was once held by Lenovo.

ex ped: It does seem a paradox. I think the answer is that the 30% growth was year to year while the slight drop in market share IDC and Gartner reported was quarter to quarter — in a quarter when Apple’s competitors were heavily discounting their product to pump up Christmas sales.

Apple’s target market is those who can be misled by hype and outright lies to pay double to treble what a laptop is worth, which apparentky constitutes 6% of the laptop market.

Evian, the bottled water brand which spells Naive when spelled backwards, goes for the same crowd of gullible snobs, and probably does equally well.

As PT Barnum said, a sucker is born every minute…

Apple isn’t superior, but it’s extreme premium cost leads the ill-informed to believe it is. This poor logic is epitomized thusly: “It costs more, so it must be better, plus they say they’re better, so it must be true.”

“Otherwise, there will only be Dells in the world. There is a reason why you see Apple products in MOMA and not Sony’s or Dell’s”

Actually Sony was a bad example - they are using the same design-oriented strategy as Apple but do it in the Windows world.

I have both a Dell and an Apple. I got the Dell because I was in a hurry. When I took time to research I got an Apple. No contest, Apple is the clear day to day winner in ease of use and functionality. I suspect most are driven by price point. When you have used a MAC you will not go back!

The problem, Brett, is that AAPL is priced for huge growth numbers, and niche “luxury” products don’t generate big numbers. Why do you think all of the fanboys and stock gamblers get riled up when someone criticizes AAPL’s market share? Because AAPL needs to increase share (and revenues) to justify a $200 stock price. Which…isn’t…going…to…happen.

To Ray hartford CT: You still don’t get it? Apple is differentiating itself by going for elegance, sophistication and design and that is the premium that Apple users willingly pay for. Otherwise, there will only be Dells in the world. There is a reason why you see Apple products in MOMA and not Sony’s or Dell’s. Make no mistake: part of the Apple appeal lies in it being the minority player. It will no longer be able to charge a premium the day its products become as ubiquitous as Dell’s, just like Gucci will not be Gucci when it becomes as accessible as GAP. What Apple wants is to hit the perfect balance - to gain max market share by still being a minority. At the current 6%, it still has a lot of room for that…

“We pay multimedia guys minimum wage like it should be.”

Sure you do. You live in the mid west. Your idea of multi media is a bucket of paint and some plywood.

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I love you apple monkeys that are STILL trying to make some claim that Mac’s hardware is somehow better then a windows machine.

I can build a mac using the SAME parts off the shelf for an insane amount less then what apple charges.. then go buy the operating system.

not saying anyway shape or form I cannot do the same with a Dell and save cash.

the issue is and will ALWAYS be the ratio of savings between my home built Mac VS my home built Dell.

untill Apple says to Dell/HP: here is the list of MoBos/processors/NiCs/Video cards/etc that we are supporting, go ahead and build/sell Mac clones with our blessing, Macs will only be a minor player (installed operating system wise)

Give me a break ! Why don’t you measure the number of people are that are actually using their systems ? Ok, how about the innovation factor the company brought to the market ? Ok…measure the number of people that are getting blue screens of death….yes you are right apple lost providing a substandard product….

re: Posted By Scott, GR-MI : January 17, 2008 7:16 pm

Sounds like Scott’s a little bitter…and a hater in the truest form. Apple doesn’t target the corporate market as its not their core strength or vision. Not everyone strives to be a Dell drone for the middle-america clones.

I’m reading these stats and noting that Dell has sold more than 5x as many units than Apple. I’m also noting that I’ve never seen an Apple product in a Corporate or Enterprise server farm, but somehow listening to Apple-heads dron on about the superiority of the Apple platform. Must me nice to do multi-media for living. Here in the midwest we pay people minimum wage for that - like it should be.

You guys should really change that headline, if I were in a freshman J-School course I’d receive a failing mark for a Fact error.

Acer bought out Gateway, so their sales were added together for the 4th quarter.

Adding is a very simple thing to do. You should try it sometime.

Why does this story say Apple’s market share slipped when the charts say it grew? That’s not a technical issue, that’s a misrepresentation of fact.

Market share is what the chart says: % of the market. SHARE. Market position or ranking is what went down (due to combination of two former also-rans)

This article remains in factual error.

Love or hate Apple, facts are facts. Share is % of the pie.

This isn’t misleading. It is flat out wrong. Its own charts confirm that.

ex ped: What the story was trying to say, apparently not very clearly, was that Apple’s market share fell from Q3 to Q4. The chart is showing Apple’s year-to-year growth in market share.

FUD.

Both sources say these are preliminary numbers. The fact is, Apple shipped far more than 1,050,000 macs between 10/1/2007 and 12/31/07.

Thanks for the buying opportunity. Its a shame its at the expense of thousands who bought shares simply because Apple makes the best products on the planet and is possibly the best managed company in the solar system.

ex ped: That’s a U.S.-only number. If you count overseas sales, you’re right.

The most important but missing statistic regarding market share is that Apple owns 100 percent of the OS X market, something is useful to remember at the dawn of the early 21st century . . .

4th place. So what. Units sold are up. Market share is up. Dell and HP both down. Acer is up. Good for them.

Apple is doing very very well.

Wow, you people ready don’t like each other do you. It reminds me of the Republican, Democrat cat fights. All the PC people saying Macs are a piece of crap and that the company will go out of business any day now. Like I haven’t been hearing that every day for 20 years now.

Macs only have sub 10% of the market in computers. What % of the market does BMW or Mercedes have? The same and they seem to be doing allright. PCs are Yugos and Fords and Macs are BMWs and Mercedes and they are allright with that. Not everybody can own a BMW and those that can’t usually talk smack about luxury car owners.

Apple stock isdown in the past week or so, but then every single tech stock on the planet is down in the same time period. There is this thing called a recession that has people spooked right now if you have lived in cave for awhile and didn’t get the memo.

With the stock market freaking out now and the price low, now might be a good time for me to pick up some aapl stock at a bargain before their fourth quarter results come out and it goesup again.

Go Apple and go all you Ford people spending all your extra time here trying to convince us all that your Ford is better than my BMW because they sell more Fords than BMWs.

RE: “Apple slipped to 4th place in Q4 U.S. sales”

Apple has NOT “slipped” to 4th place. Apple, in fact, organically grew faster than any other computer company.

The merger of two companies, and combining their sales into a single, higher number, is NOT organic growth.

An example of your error of thought would be if both, Acer and Gateway, actually had DECLINES in unit sales, yet their combined merger of total unit sales exceeds that of Apple’s unit sales. In this case, the merged company has more unit sales than Apple, but each company, Acer and Gateway, had lower individual unit sales.

Your headline would be accurate if it said, “Merger of Acer and Gateway brings the new company’s sales to third place.”

Fun with statistics…Acer “went up” because they bought out Gateway. Instant increase in share. I’m sure if Apple bought out Gateway the story would be different. Knuckleheads. Sheesh.

Not a big deal. You are talking about faceless drone machines, sitting by the hundreds of thousands in office cubes where people type emails denying others health insurance ETC. That’s not the market Apple is in. And it doesn’t matter in the long run as no one uses them for digital photos, or for music, or editing movies, or, well anything but mundane tasks. Which is fine. Hey, I’ve used them often at corporate jobs. The strength of the Apple market is pro use and creative use and integration. WHy do you think Microsoft is trying to jam X-Boxes down people’s throats? The market for drone machines is not going to be in robust growth.

To Ashley - way to stereotype “PC users”. Macolytes have been spewing the same BS for years now, and the market share numbers are still squarely in the mid-single digits. I actively choose to not buy AAPL products because I’d rather have a computer with a ton of software available for it…and not have to run 2 operating systems to get it. Apple is running a cult, not a company. Jobs has somehow convinced people to pay more for closed, proprietary, commodity products in exchange for some “cachet” and exclusivity, all under the guise of elegant design. Don’t underestimate the PC users, or the universe of folks out there who can’t stand AAPL and actively choose not to use the company’s products. Not everyone needs dumbed-down simplicity. I chuckle at the iPhone users on my train showing off their limited devices while my 3G Windows Mobile 6 Motorola Q9h runs rings around it (3G voice and data, GPS, real Bluetooth, etc.) with hundreds of useful apps available. AAPL is a house of cards - there are only so many iPods that people need, and the potential universe of folks willing to pay $400+ for a smartphone is limited. The MacWorld stock decline is the tip of the iceberg for this company. Not even the 3G iPhone can save them now.

When Steve Jobs through Flashing titles for old technology (like SMS for multiple people on iphone) that a genius marking strategy, but when Phil put a flashing title to drive people to read his articles (the article by the way is well written and very fair) it is a crime against all humanity, but Phil is not Steve and he do not have a lot of $$$$. You have to love Apple fan boys or may I say apple stock gamblers.

While the title is misleading I believe that all the appleites are too busy defending an excellent system and not seeing the big picture. Look at the world wide #’s. Apple is at best 9th in the world with approximately 2% of the market. Face it Apple will not survive the next 20 years on computers alone. If it were not for the personal applications (ipod, iphone, etc.) it is very well possible that Apple would not even be here today. Yeah, I know, I know, it makes great computers but as you’ve seen over the last few years even apple is moving towards a unified operating system (using intel chips, getting microsoft products on their operating system). I would be willing to figure that within the forseeable future we will ultimately see Apple purchased, gutted and sold off, with Microsoft incorporating the best of Apples operating systems into a future operating system that will operate on both platforms. Ok, now let me put on my Kevlar undies so you people can kick me…. ok.

Talk about reality distortion. I guess it’s true what they say: “There are lies, damn lies, and then there’s statistics.”

Apple’s market share didn’t slip, it grew at the expense of every other PC maker listed on these charts. It just so happens that two smaller PC makers merged and their combined market share now tops Apple’s.

I guess if Apple had acquired Dell [which they certainly have the money to do if they were crazy enough to go thru with it] they would be in first place and their market share would have quintupled.

This article is a clear smear tactic that betrays just how completely unethical and in the pockets of the Windows/PC industry certain writers and publishers are.

If they had any intention to report the truth, the article’s headline and content would read something to the effect that Acer acquired Gateway and moved into 3rd place in market share. It would then become an article about Acer, not Apple, and would have no place in the “Apple 2.0″ column.

Mr. Elmer-DeWitt is clearly biased and influenced by a particular point of view and has no interest in divulging the facts.

No matter how results are presented, the fanboys will show up to criticize the methodology. The only acceptable reports are glowing projections that show Apple market share increasing dramatically. Does it really matter whether it’s 6% or 8%? It’s still the same as it ever was…sub 10% and going nowhere above that, regardless of the alleged halo effect of iPods and iPhones. Enjoy your closed, proprietary Macs, fanboys.

Sir, could you please explain to the readers why you choose a headline that suggest sales of Apple are down? People may get the impression you are not completely informed our worse.

Thanks

Before the Apple fan boys show up in these comments to whip Philip for preparing this item, I’ll add a little perspective. There’s a big difference in outlook and motivation between the people who buy Macs and those how buy PCs.
I used to provide product launch services for high tech products when the PC business was wild and wooly. So I know how to read the buzz; I wrote a lot of it myself. There’s a phenomenon happening with Apple sales that transcends these numbers as they relate to phones and computers.
I was in a mall the other day. The Apple store was packed; almost every hands-on display was occupied with two or three people fiddling with the Macs, iPhones, and iPods. The only products that didn’t have finger-poking attention were the high end towers with 30 inch displays and the Apple TVs. I think the buyers instinctively ignored the professional grade systems as being not for them. Most users have no idea what to do with a 30 inch screen and the sheer size intimidates. The problem of the Apple TV is that it is not very interactive. Apple TV is essentially a hardware enabled menu; unless the user has a personal connection with the content behind the menus, he or she is not going to ooh-aah over snapshots of laminoid people and random video clips. Less engagement in the store, may not always mean poor sales, but I’m sure this is a major obstacle for the Apple TV. Over about three hours, I looked in about every forty minutes, buyers were leaving with boxes and the crowd density was about the same. People were buying Apple stuff.
A few stores away was the (sniff) Palm store. It was totally empty; no customers. Of the two young clerks, one was pecking away on a black MacBook–apparently doing class work or maybe posting to his blog. No one was even looking at Palm products. HP and Dell don’t have stores, they and Acer, are all sold by lots of stores, so buyers of any of these vendors are choosing one over the other. It’s not easy to guess their criteria, but we can pay attention to their outlook. In talking with buyers or potential buyers of computers (my personal mini-focus groups) I’ve found this stunning bit of insight. People buying Macs (or iPhones) have a strong, well articulated reason for doing so. These are people who are able to choose what they use and are exercising their option to switch. Among the reasons, the most common is sheer exhaustion with annoying Microsoft software: viruses, crashes, up to eight hours on the phone to non-English speaking customer service, or Microsoft policy that presumes every customer is a crook. Apple buyers want a computer that does what they want to do.
PC buyers are quite different. They don’t think they have a choice. They are resigned to using Windows and are buying a new machine because the old one is now slow, or old. I don’t doubt these numbers. Lots of PCs are bought to continue things. Businesses who are still going through the motions must upgrade systems to keep on keeping on and HP, Dell, etc. make good stuff. But these systems are bought for familiarity and low cost. I don’t doubt that ACER can have a great quarter if they have a great price in a price driven market that buys lots of stuff. The difference is the purpose driven buyers at the Apple counter who are looking to start something new. There’s more ants in the jungle than tigers, and they are needed to clean up. But the tigers are what people have to look out for. Maybe Apple has a reason for naming the software after big cats.

getting to the point of fraudulent market manipulation with this headline.
I wont be surprised if someone gets in big trouble for such nonsense.
Tell all your friends - dont bother with this website again.

Bearing in mind an apple computer cost much more than some acer/ gateway tat, if you restate the numbers in terms of value instead of units, apple will be much further up the list.

This is a good article with well researched information. At least you are doing research not just looking at a price every day.

If these bashers don’t want to listen to your input, they don’t have to. It is their loss.

Again, great job Elmer. You always come through with an unbiased opinion.

I may disagree with a previous post about Apple in the 80s. Although my research shows that AAPL is currently overvalued nearly 2-to-1, it comes in about 90-95 as being more accurate.

Apple did increase market share. Bottom line though they still only have a little over 6% of the marketplace compared to others from an OS perspective. There are still more Linux installs than MacOS. They still need to increase market share to be more than a niche player no matter how brilliant and innovative they have been.

Who is this retarded analyst? Any high school student with a C- in Economics 1 could do a better analysis.

hey nicky cee…

i assume when you say “…as the stock rises throughout 2008.” you mean as it’s done so far right….rising nearly -20% so far in 2008?

(that is not a typo….you read it correctly….nearly MINUS 20%)

dang you apple buy-and-hopers need to do MUCH MORE homework on apple as a whole….simply watching a stock price is not investing….that’s called A FOOL SOON TO BE PARTED FROM HIS/HER MONEY.

i am superDuper glad i sold at 200…when it gets back to the 80s, where it belongs, i think of buying again.

you doubt those numbers?? DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK THEN!!!! dumbchits

hey thomas a…

didn’t you read the first sentence of the article where it states that acer aquired gateway last year??

typical Rtard….

oh and by the way…let me be the first to say about apples declining market share……..

I TOLD YOU SO!!!!

lmao…

OK folks these are the numbers.. but c’mon he did not make them up the fact is that Apple lost a little something in respect to last report no big deal infact as the “article” says the numbers are not going to be official until earnings are reported and we all know what that means with Gartner and IDC.. revisions !!!
what is more important though is that 30% growth
that is a pretty huge number especially considering the reduced distribution Apple has compared to Dell and HP
as far as Acer goes they rule the low end market in parts of Europe but that is also going to change in the next few years..
many people put off buying a new Macbook waiting for this new model I am one of those now I am ordering the air book but most likely with a smaller mac mini or Imac

Boy mac head sure hate facts. Fact they lost market share. So what it happens to even the best companies. It’s no reason to start questioning the someone just because you don’t like what he/she says.

And to think some retarded survey said mac heads were more open minded… Hahahahahahaha. Funniest thing i’ve ever heard.

Disclaimer: I own Apple stock, own a mac mini, but i’m far from a mac head. I see apple for what it is, an alternative and a play toy.

Incredibly misleading headline, but what do you expect from a dewitt? He distorts, you decide.

I believe Jafray’s numbers; Gartner is pretty much on MSFT’s payroll. They have a horrendous record on accuracy. Maybe they just looked at big box stores– that would totally miss online sales and Apple Store sales. Their methodology is not stated in your piece, so we don’t know the extent of their error.

This is a bit embarrassing. The chart in the article shows Apple’s market share up from 4.7 to 5.7% over last year.

The headline should read “Apple’s market share grows 30% in 2007″. How many folks need to point this out before it gets fixed?

The article clearly states that Acer aquired Gateway last year and that the aquisition pushed Acer into 4th place. It is now one company and should be counted as such (HP/Compaq anyone?).

The article did nothing to diminish the significant sales gain of Apple during the quarter. Everyone needs to stop acting like it did. I’m sure there is a very good chance Apple will push past the combined Gateway/Acer in the next year or so.

That said, I really hope Apple continues to do well. They’ve brought alot of innovation to the market.

Irresponsible journalism at its best…you would think that the Editors would pick this up…

And, you do not understand seasonality. When holiday shoppers come in during 4Q, and deep discount sales are running, it’s not surprising to see shares change in favor of low cost brands. A textbook example of how not to analyze data!

I think you should choose a different line of work… maybe like a Michael Moore groupie or something. This tendency you have to misinterpret data is sometimes mind-boggling. I won’t reduce myself to the level of trying to correct you.

I think if one looks at the growth of Acer, it is at Dell’s cost.

Apple is still gaining ground on the others. Albeit slowly, but gaining none the less.

Headline and text are PITIFULLY inaccurate. “That puts Apple in 4th place behind Dell (DELL), HP (HPQ) and Acer in U.S. personal computer sales.” NO! Read the preceding sentence! That puts Apple in fourth place in MARKET SHARE…..Looking at all the other numbers…RATE of growth etc….makes one wonder why you are so motivated to slant the language as you have!

ex ped: Not sure I follow you. Apple is in 4th place in 4Q in BOTH PC sales and market share (one follows logically from the other). See the charts.

The headline and tone of the blog entry is absurd. Apple is now #4 because of the Acer/Gateway merger, not because it has lost market share. In fact it has gained market share and has now passed Toshiba.

I guess Fortune just needs the web traffic….why else would they put up with this.

Looks to me like Apple increased from 5th to 4th place 4th qtr 06 to 4th qtr 07. Acer and Gateway combined on 06 sold fewer computers than Apple (1380 vs. 808). Very misleading article.

So what? 6.1 vs 5.7% -Apple has less market share than the GM and Fords of the PC marketplace, AKA more upside potential. Apple makes elegantly compelling products that sell. They have a brilliantly unified multiple revenue stream model, achieved by building a better overall user experience.
Does anyone really care if company X sells more than company Y when investing, or do people invest in the growth and profit potential of a company?

Do a little math. If you combine a bunch of smaller companies into one, they move up. You can also look at it this way. Go ahead and combine all the PC companies into one then Apple climbs to second place.

Acer bought Gateway thats why they are 3rd. Do you really think they organically grew 294.2%. Whoever put this article up doesnt know what they are talking about Apple didnt fall anywhere they grew 30% organically.

Well Not many people own Lexus or Mercedes do they. Cream is far less than the milk when seperated out. People buy cheap and get exactly what they bought. I absolutely love my iMAC, iPhone, MacBook, and excited about my new Macbook AIR. Oh and I just got another 100 shares of AAPL at BARGIN basement prices. GO APPL.

Interesting: projected sales for Apple were 2.4-2.5M for Q407 — they had lost > 60% of their computer business in one quarter! This is astonishingly serious reporting based on sound research…

Acer jumped ahead of Apple due to an acquisition. This article is very mis-leading. Also, how can “Although the two market research firms show Apple’s domestic computer sales in the Christmas quarter up roughly 30 percent from last year — outpacing the industry average by better than 3 to 1 — Apple’s share of the market actually fell during those three months.” be possible? Apple’s share of which market? US or World wide? How bout a discussion on how it is easier to grow when you have small market share? What is the agenda here? If you want to be objective, you should make pro and con observations.

You need to work on your statistics. Acer’s advance to 3rd place isn’t at the expense of Apple. They’ve taken away market share from other PC vendors. Apple’s share continues to grow, no matter what “place” they’re in.

Strikingly noticeable the huge difference for the Q406 shipment figures in between the two tables for Acer. Almost a ‘million’ units????

Gee Elmer F.U.D., you’re at it again.

No, it doesn’t contradict analysts predictions for a blowout Christmas sales for Apple. The difference in market share is due to the merger of Gateway and Acer, but of course you are better at writing provocative headlines than you are at reporting objectively.

I continue to believe that Steve Jobs must have stolen your lunch money when you were a child, otherwise why would you be so vindictive in every article.

Fortune, you may be getting hits and therefore ad money on these articles, but selling your integrity will ultimately be damaging to your value.

Don’t you think you should mention it ‘fell’ to 4th place because now Gateway is included in Acers sales?

You forgot to mention one very important point: Acer’s number is the combination of Acer and Gateway for Q4, which was separately reported in Q3 as two companies. In another word, Apple didn’t really slipped.

Article’s like this drive me nuts… they did not SLIP into 4th place, Acer and Gateway (two companies that were seperately below Apple) combined to go ahead of Apple… they are in fourth place but it’s not a result of slowing sales in any sense which is what this article makes it look like. I also love the fact Apple is not in the top 5 worldwide STILL so much room for growth!!

Prior to last quarter Acer and Gateway were separate companies which would put both companies behind Apple. This should be explained in this article.

Thank you and all the other journalists who present unbalanced reviews of Apple’s last quarter! You have set up an amazing buying opportunity for us now which will pay handsomely when the truly monstrous results are released on Tuesday. Did you visit any Apple stores last quarter? I did. A dozen a week. Just so I could gauge their quarterly results. After the results on Tuesday, Apple’s price will spike and Apple will take on the a unique position among investors as a safe yet high growth stock. I will keep an eye on your reporting as the stock rises throughout 2008! Thanks again.

You forgot to report, that Acer purchased Gateway and that why acer in number 3 now….

Thomas A. Gaughan

ex ped: It’s in the first sentence.