iPod "halo effect" a myth Mac marketshare drops

Tim Smith

I've seen figures for 3.8 dropping to 3.7 during the Intel transition.

Logcially and applying a bit of brain power to this situation:

The US market for PCs allegedly increased during this time in terms of units sold across the board.

Many people will have been holding off buying a Mac waiting for Intel models.

iBooks - one of the best sellers - have been the least compebreastive in terms of CPU power, and latest to be migrated to Intel (where they now offer excellent value for money in just outright spec and performance).

So, iPod halo or not, Apple's products are more than holding their own, and will gain dramatically with the Intel CPUs. Regardless of which architecture you prefer, you cannot argue that the single CPU G4s at whatever speed (1.5GHz?) on a relatively slow bus were at all compebreastive; especially when compared with the last raft of dual-core notebooks. Your £1000 would get you a dual core Tosh at 1.33GHz with higher-res and faster bus, or the higher-end iBook, at the time - now it gets you the higher-end MacBook at 2GHz, or the Tosh equivalent for around the same price at 1.66GHz or 1.83 in some cases.

Apple is doing very well right now. It's not going anywhere except for up, much to the dismay of some fairly illogical people who appear to be quite comfortable with MS' success in the marketplace, yet don't like to see Apple replicating that sort of dominance in a different market.

Richard

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