Apple Dominant

2008 was the year in which Apple become the dominant vendor of desktop and laptop devices. It was the year in which Microsoft’s monopoly was clearly broken. This was in line with what I expected would happen (see Forecasts for 2008: #3 The PC Market)

The latest set of market stats, Net Applications’ December results, show Mac OS X having a 9.6% share of Internet traffic, which indicates a market share increase (by actual usage) of 2.3 percent. Most of that is reflecting Apple’s dominant position in the US retail market, where it has 30% plus market share by revenue. There’s a global lag which will gradually be “back-filled” over time and Apple establishes stronger routes to market in Europe and Asia. Apples momentum is being strongly reinforced by the runaway success of the iPhone.

There is little more to say about this except that the trend of Apple’s dominance will persist. However, it will persist in the midst of a severe recession, so it might not be as so easy to divine what is happening from the sales figures as they emerge.

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Tim Negris posted a comment to my post: Productivity And The “Muscle Memory” Interface It bears repetition. This is what it said…

To dig deeper, it seems that the muscle-memory user interface (MMUI) has a few common attributes appearing in most of its manifestations.

1. Task Path - the order in which things must be done to get the desired result.
   Gun: Ready, Aim, Fire.
   Game: Find Key, Open Door, Kill Dragon.
   Car: Check Mirrors, Signal, Change Lanes.
2. Step State - the extant processes and conditions in effect at any point within a task path.
   Gun: Aiming in Motion.
   Game: Dodging Fireballs.
   Car: Lane Merge.
3. Essential Modality - the necessary conditions that must be in effect at any given step state.
   Gun: Have Ammunition.
   Game: Know Secret Code.

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This year I will finally be able to put some effort into PDQMac.com, the site I’ve set up with the aim of improving people’s interface productivity. If there’s a key underlying point to what I’ll be doing with that site, it is this:

Productivity is all about muscle memory.

So I’d better explain what that means before I go any further. Let’s start with the fact that nearly all of us have learned how to drive a car and have a memory of that learning process.

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