"According to DisplaySearch-a provider of information, consulting and conferences on the display supply chain and display-related industries- netbook shipments grew by 160 percent in the third quarter of 2008. This means that "companies that have missed or decided not to play in the netbook market-such as Apple-have lost market share," reports The Guardian."
Okay... Maybe mathematically this might be true, but I'm not even sure I buy it in that regard either. Anyway, this isn't the first time Apple has been criticized for its prices and not catering to the low-end and playing the margin game and it probably won't be the last.
Besides... Who says Apple isn't going to pull a Netbook out of its hat in January?
Just sayin'.
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Current Apple Stuff: 24" iMac, iPhone 4, AppleTV (original), 4gb Shuffle, 64gb iPad 2.
I don't get netbooks. I have a hard time using a 13" macbook. For getting things done a 15inch is all I can stand. Who wants to surf on a 9 inch screen?
I don't get netbooks. I have a hard time using a 13" macbook. For getting things done a 15inch is all I can stand. Who wants to surf on a 9 inch screen?
I had the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and I miss it terribly. It's a very useful little machine, actually. Is the browsing experience as good as it is on a larger screen? Nope, but you do get used to it after awhile.
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Current Apple Stuff: 24" iMac, iPhone 4, AppleTV (original), 4gb Shuffle, 64gb iPad 2.
As I type this I am working on a Dell Latitude XT - 12 inch tablet and it drives me crazy. I don't think that I could get used to it. If I had my way I would live to send this thing back to Dell and exchange it towards an E6400. Well part of the problem is that it is not apple hardware.
Maybe mathematically this might be true, but I'm not even sure I buy it in that regard either.
Unless there are more details, you can't tell whether it's true or not.
For example, just because netbook shipments grew 160% doesn't tell us much. If they all ate into sales that would have gone to full-size Windows notebooks, it wouldn't affect Mac's share at all. If Windows notebook sales held steady, and all of the netbook sales were new (not replacements), Mac won't have lost users, but would lose marketshare (but only because the overall market got bigger due to a new player).
That's why I find marketshare discussions somewhat overblown. There were also those studies that said the iPhone is now #2 in marketshare, but that didn't necessarily mean there were fewer BlackBerry or Windows Mobile users, just that their percentage of the overall smart phone market is less.
In fact, it's possible for every other player to gain users but lose marketshare to a player that has a phenomenal increase in sales.
If netbooks actually start taking away sales from Apple, that will be news.
Steve
P.S. The link in your original post is broken Here's the correct link.
Somebody who wants to see more than something smaller than a paperback book. I like my Motorola Q9m, but my Celio Redfly makes actually reading things on it so much nicer.
I sometimes think articles like this are cries for help. Please make a Mac portable I can afford ! Why else chastise Apple for not competing in that space ?
Every time I think of getting a cheap PC laptop or netbook, I am stopped by one major fact: OS X. I am fully committed to and in love with OS X and quite frankly, I won't buy a computer that doesn't run this OS. So for me, I'm married to Apple for my computers. Yes, I wish they were cheaper and I do buy the cheapest in class (Mac mini for desktop, mid-range Macbook for laptops).
Apple could surprise us, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Folks have been pining for the return of the 12" screen a la Powerbook G4 12" and their pleas have fallen on deaf ears at Apple. And Apple's cheapest machine - the mini, hardly gets the love of the rest of the Apple lineup. It seems to me that Apple really isn't the least bit interested in playing in the low end space with its computers and that's just something we'll have to learn to live with.
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XBox 360 S, 16GB iPhone 4S, iPod Classic 160 GB, Dell Inspiron Mini 1018; Macs: Mac Mini 2.4 GHz 6 GB RAM; Macbook 2.0 GHz 3 GB RAM; MacBook Air 11", 24" Cinema Display
Apple Losing Market Share Due to Netbooks?
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