🚀 go-pugleaf

Issa El-Hazin (issa@cwis.unomaha.edu) wrote:
: 
: Last time I checked, the industry's overall growth rate is around 25%, 
: I beleive. If Apple only gained 20%, then they are losing market share.
: 
: Again, these numbers are for a single quarter (Q3 95), what about the
: whole year. Also, why compare Apple vs. a single PC vendor. 
: 
: Try Apple vs (Compaq + IBM + GW200 + Dell + Micron + Packard Bell +  
: a 1000+ other PC cloners.)

The industry as a whole *didn't* grow by 25%.  1995 was, overall, *very* 
disappointing for the personal computer industry.  Christmas was a 
disaster for just about everyone- numbers were pretty much flat from last 
year's sales.  The top vendors did gain market share, yes- but nowhere 
near as much as in past years.  I've seen numbers (not the guesstimates 
which many folks have been using) that show an overall growth rate for 
the PC industry of under 15% for 1995.  That makes Apple's 20% pretty good.

Some vendors did better than the industry as a whole, yes- but that 
mostly came at the expense of smaller companies.  The roll-your-own clone 
companies that were springing up at such a great rate a couple of years 
back are running into hard times.  Not to mention the recent troubles of 
companies like Packard Bell, AST, and CompuAdd (RIP).

: Sounds high to me. I know PCes have been steeling market share from
: Apple in the publishing/graphic market in the last few years. 
: The total number of Macs that are in the publishing market is lower
: than the total number of PCes in the same market. I believe this has
: been the case since 94.

In the real, big-time commercial graphics market (not little Bobby 
running Harvard Graphics on his dad's PC), Macs still stomp all over the 
PC market share.

: The Mac is Number two in the Web server market according to Apple. 
: According to the exprts, Apple rankes 4th - behind Unix, NT, and 
: Windows 3.x/95. 

Which experts?  Considering that there *is* no Web server for W95 yet, 
you're going to have to come up with a source for this.

: Windows applications grew by 47% while Mac sales declined by 13%
: in the first three quarters of 1995 compared to the same period 
: in 1994. (Byte 2/96, page 30).

No- Windows *retail* sales grew versus the Mac.  A huge proportion of Mac 
sales come from mail order now.

And here's the major theme of your argument:

: Again, Apple vs. a single PC vendor. How about Mac's vs. all PCes?

How about it?  Apple isn't really competing against every PC manufacturer 
in the world.  It's just competing for enough market share to make money 
and pay for R&D.  Now, if the PC makers had some sort of pact where they 
would bail each other out when they got into financial straits, you might 
have a point, but when PC vendors like Packard Bell, AST, and the others 
are struggling just to stay afloat, you're better off *not* comparing 
them to Apple.

Now- here's something interesting...

: |  Issa El-Hazin  (issa@unomaha.edu)     ||  Phone: (402) 554-3483     |
: |  University of Nebraska at Omaha       ||    Fax: (402) 554-2722     |
: |  Education and Technology Coordinator  ||     issa@unomaha.edu       |

Let me guess.  you're a long-time PC user and fanatic, and you've been 
reduced to dealing with us lowly Macintosh users.  Now you're upset, so 
you have to go out on the Internet and complain about Apple in the hopes 
that a big part of your job will be eliminated.

Or are you one of those empire-builders who wants more PCs in your 
department so you can hire a lot more support staff than you can 
currently justify?

-- 

Chad Irby           /    My greatest fear: that future generations will,
cirby@gate.net     /      for some reason, refer to me as an "optimist."