Apple and the Laptop Market

It has been reported that Apple has 91% of the over $1,000 laptop market. Ninety-one percent. That means Apple has a virtual monopoly on the mid to high-end laptop market. That also means machines running Microsoft operating systems increasingly occupy only the low-end of the market.

The trend is a migration away from desktops toward laptops these days so a number like ninety-one percent should be all that much more alarming to the Microsoft ecosystem. But through rose-colored glasses, "PCs are getting cheaper and cheaper these days. We own virtually all of the market in terms of unit sales." Remember the adage "its better to have something than 100% of nothing"? Apple has a virtual monopoly on the high gross margin market. The sub $1,000 laptop market is a low margin business and the desktop market is drastically shrinking.

If you want something to "just work (tm)", cheaper isn't what you are looking for. Fighting the virus battle and hoping that disparate drivers will coexist peacefully just isn't worth the $200 you might save on a laptop. Ninety-one percent of the high-margin business is nothing short of devastating to the Microsoft ecosystem, and I don't see anything on the horizon that might upset this trend.

Comments (2)

Beaker from VA

Just bought my wife a new MacBook Pro this past weekend. This was to replace her 4 year old iBook G4. That iBook has performed flawlessly and is still on the original battery. I can't say the same about my 2+ year old MacBook Pro (as far as the battery is concerned). These machines are bullet proof.

I do not think I could spend my own $$ on a Windows p.o.s.

Zipper from Durham, NC

Maybe the average user is better paying $200... (or $500) more for a MacBook. They are absolutely GREAT machines with a great OS. But if you have the smallest amount of common sense you can easily avoid viruses (I've gotten one in 20 years, and that was my own stupid fault), and I can't even remember the last time I had a driver issue on any of my... four... windows boxes. A couple of those dual boot to various Linux distros... hello driver issues!! Being the stingy bloke that I am, its nice to know that I spent probably about the same amount on all four of those boxes combined then you guys spent on one MacBook.

The one thing Windows doesn't buy is elitism... but that's okay, I've got Linux for that! : D

I will say that if I wasn't as cheap and was going to shell out $1000 or more on a notebook, it would be Mac all the way.