Apple Continues To Motor

Apple had a 14% market share of the retail U.S. PC market in terms of sales and 25% market share by value in February according to NPD. Apple notebook sales grew 64% by units (67% by revenue) and desktops grew 55% (68% by revenue). The impact of the MacBook Air seems to be additive rather than replacing other MacBook sales. If these US sales figures were being replicated across the globe, it would be causing a crisis in the PC industry. If Apple ramps up its plans for new Apple stores, this could happen quite quickly.

The simple truth is that Apple is the only PC manufacturer (with the possible exception of Asus, with its cheap Linux PCs) that is able to differentiate its products. Because it can differentiate, it can choose its price point and thus adjust its sales volumes without impacting productivity. It is now posing a serious challenge to HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer and the rest.

Apple Contemplating “All You Can Eat”

If it hadn’t emerged from a long chat I’d had with Phil Sant, one of the founders of Omnifone, I would think that my posting entitled Nokia, Ominfone & Apple: All you can eat? was prescient. It noted that the mobile phone market was moving at speed to an all-you-can-eat model, courtesy of Nokia and Omnifone. One day later, the news breaks that Apple is now contemplating such a model. On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Apple was in talks with the “Big Four” global music companies; EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music Group. The talks were about radically changing the pricing structure of iTunes. There were mutterings of all-you-can-eat and even speculation that iPods might be sold with “music included”.

If this is true, then note three things:

  1. Steve Jobs does not control the price of music.
  2. Apple has no music monopoly
  3. The carriers will make nothing from the mobile music market

Is this all a trailer for what happens with video?

iPhone Therefore I Am

And despite the nay sayers and Apple fans like me, who wouldn’t touch it because they thought it was a rip-off, the iPhone is a success by any reasonable metric and is changing the mobile world accordingly. One aspect of this is the mobile browser market. The Safari browser is now the leading mobile browser in the US and second in the UK, according to StatCounter.

If I were Microsoft or Mozilla, I’d be concerned, because the mobile market will eventually consume the desktop and laptop market and Apple will surely enjoy the meal.

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