Study Projects Apple Laptops Top Consumer Choice Next Quarter

Ben Worthen put up another great post yesterday about Apple Macs making inroads in business. But most interesting is a statistic he cites at the bottom of his entry:

Just in case there’s any doubt where that momentum is coming from: The study found that more consumers will buy Apple (AAPL) laptops than any other brand. Twenty-nine percent of consumers who are buying a laptop next quarter said they’ll buy a Mac, ahead of (Dell) (28%) and H-P (HPQ) (21%). Among consumers who plan to buy desktops, Macs came in at 29%, just behind Dell (31%) and ahead of H-P (24%).

So you read it first in the Wall Street Journal: Apple is now the number one laptop brand for consumers.

Disclosure: Author is long AAPL.

Comments

[beech_35]

This confirms what I've been witnessing as a growing trend that's even accelerated over the past year or so. At least a third of the laptops I see in daily use are Apples, and that number continues to grow. The last reason to buy anything other than an Apple computer ended with their introduction of Intel CPUs. Funny thing is, all the Apple computers I see are running OS X, not Windows. Windows users have been collectively banging their heads against the same wall for way too long. It must feel good to finally STOP!

[Lisa]

And I bet Apple's share of the laptop market will grow even more when it launches this:

seekingalpha.com/artic...

[jmmx]

Carl-

I always appreciate your articles. You are positive, and a fan - but not a *fanboy*.

Just one thing - Quoting Worthen is OK, but in this case going back to the source would have been better.

(picky picky picky!) :)

[jmmx]

To the point of growing market share in the corporate world I see two things to note:

1- This 6%/7% desktop/laptop figure is roughly 2 times what it was about 1.5 years ago.

2- 5-6% is roughly what the Consumer purchasing of Macs was just a couple of years ago - now 29% (both lap & desks) according to the ChangeWave research sited in this aricle)

Suggestion:
- Is it possible that corporate purchases will follow consumers and that in 2 to 3 years we will see Macs purchased at 30% ??
—-

IMHO - It seems to be an incontrovertible fact that the Macs are more reliable and much easier to maintain. This means that they are much cheaper in overall life cycle. As corporations become aware of this, the adoption rate will increase.

To me -it is that simple.

Happy holidays and peace
jmmx in Portland Orygun

[jmmx]

Re: Accelerating growth (as per beech_35 above)

One more thing (thanks for your patience all!)

IMHO -

The long-touted concept of the "Halo effect" states that people are drawn to Macs by using the iPod. This certainly seems to have been verified. But I would like to make a few observations here.

Let us say that of all iPod users, a certain percentage X will become switchers to Macs.

1- These "switchers" will switch only after using the iPod for some period of time.

2- The period for each switcher will vary. If I just bought a new Win machine 2 months ago it may be 2 or 3 years.

3- The number of new iPod users has continually grown since its introduction. The number of iPod adopters getting larger all the time.

4- A corollary of #2 is that we are still seeing new switchers from those who purchased their first iPods 3 years ago.

5- Conclusion- the purchase of Macs by new switchers will continue to grow well into the future.

Finally- There is now a whole new class of people introduced to the Mac "ecosystem" - the iPhone users. These may be even stronger candidates for switching since they actually get to use Mac OS on the iPhone itself.

Regards,

jmmx in Portland Orygun