14 DAY TRIAL // With word on the web that Apple's portable computers are gaining ground on Windows, even Microsoft-focused bloggers are talking about it. While “Windows laptops are losing luster, Mac laptops are making surprising gains,” eWeek Microsoft Watch blogger Joe Wilcox has noticed, having moved to a 20-percent in market share (June / July retail sales), and near 65-percent measured in dollars.
Citing NPD Group findings, Wilcox points out that Windows notebook revenues grew only by 1.5 percent, compared with 30 percent for Mac laptops, speaking of year-over-year growth. As far as unit growth goes, calculations show that Windows has 10 percent, compared with 35 percent belonging to Mac laptops. To make things even more interesting, the NPD Group wasn't the only tracker cited in the report.
It is also suggested that retail partners, but also Microsoft itself should be cautious, as the dollar figure is "hugely significant.” Apparently, one dollar for every three spent on notebooks went to a Mac (at U.S. retail stores). Both Gartner and the IDC see notebooks as the catalyst in the growth in PCs, with shipments of portable computing solutions being estimated at 148.2 million units by the end of the year.
Leaving the US market aside, year-over-year growth rate is expected to be 44.7 percent. “With laptops deemed the main PC growth category,” Wilcox writes, "Microsoft and its partners should dread Apple's shocking gains in such an important computing category."
And while some may say Apple’s future is bleak, should it keep selling above the $1,000 price level, it is also believed that “the company's strategy of higher absolute and average selling prices is paying off.” Even for its low-cost laptops, Apple charges an entry level of $1,099. It has been revealed that Windows OEMs offer at least one model below $500, while some notebooks actually sell for a third of Apple's entry price for the low-end models.