∞ Apple captures 91% of market for computers over $1000

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In case you didn’t read that correctly the first time, Apple is ruling the computer high-end computer market.

MacBook AirAccording to data from market research firm NPD, Apple’s revenue share for PCs over $1,000 is 91 percent.

Betanews reports that Apple’s revenue share went up to 91 percent from 88 percent in May. Last year, I did a story that pegged Apple’s share of the $1,000 plus market at 66 percent. Clearly this isn’t a new phenomenon.

Here are some other interesting facts and figures. In June, the average price for PCs sold at retail was $701, or $690 for desktops and $703 for notebooks.

When you break that down to just Windows computers, the average price drops to $515, which the average Mac price was $1,400. You can break that down further to Windows desktops at $489 and notebooks $520. Mac desktops were $1,398 and laptops were at $1,400.

Not bad, not bad at all.


  • http://1-800-magic.blogspot.com Sergey Solyanik

    > Not bad, not bad at all.
    I congratulate you on your heart-felt desire to pay 3x for a computer that does one half as much :-) !

  • jr

    Three times the price comes pretty close to the mark, Sergey.

    But then you go and spoil it all with the “half as much” comment. Clearly, the opposite is accurate, in that you can do twice as much with both OS X and Windoze installed.

    Then again, if you’re not a creative, why should you care to remove the obvious blinkers.

  • Jamie

    Actually, you can run OS X, Windows, Linux, AND Unix (gotta love that ASCII Star Wars) NATIVELY (and yes, they run Windows like a champ), so that’s four times as much. Using that logic would make the Mac the actual bargain. I would say going with a Windows centric machine, you’re paying a third less for four times less functionality and probably a quarter of the shelf life. Guess it’s up to you.

  • Mark

    To me, most PC makers are chasing the market. They see the economy is in the slumps, so they figure the only way to sell is to drop prices. Following that line of reasoning, they are the ones eating their young, not Apple. As the economy improves they will see the need to raise prices and that isn’t easily done. Once people get used to paying bottom dollar they typically don’t want to pay more unless they get more…much more.

    Apple has kept to their fundamentals and has stayed strong. As people get more money they will look to finally be able to afford that Apple and won’t want that expensive Dell. Even if that doesn’t translate in to huge sales, perception still sells and most PCs are GM computers while Apple is the Lexus, Mercedes, or Jaguar. People dream of owning one of these brands, they don’t dream of finally getting that Chevy. Unless, they are 16 and looking for their first car.

  • http://www.bourkepr.com KevinB

    Yeah, in other words, Apple is the only one who hasn’t devalued themselves. I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying they’re the ‘high end of the market,’ but it is fair to say they’ve held steady,and as Mark suggests in his comment, held to their fundamentals. Instead, they come up with very smart strategies to get people hooked on the brand – like increasingly powerful iPods and iPhones.

    The iPhone launched as a near $600 item – making it attainable only by some and catapulting the iPhone into perceived “high status,” or “exclusive” category – making the iPhone the want of everyone from pre-teens to older consumers and professionals. Then, they drop the price to below $200, making it accessible to all. In my neighborhood, I’m surrounded by dedicated PC users – but they ALL now have iPhones and say things to me like, “are the systems as cool and easy to use as this thing? I think I’m going to make the switch.”

    Brilliant….IMHO

  • http://www.noonedriving.com HowManoid

    Guess the “laptop hunter” (ie actor) who got the HP for a steel at $1500 should have gone with a Mac after all.

  • Cory Gray

    LOL… if by half as much, you mean that my computer doesn’t get malware, adware, or viruses and I don’t need to run a resource hogging virus checker all the time… then maybe you have a point.

    PC’s are the classic “bait and switch” scam… they get you to purchase a cheap computer, but it ends up costing you way more . Macs last twice as long… give you twice as much software out of the box that you actually use… full functioning software. Most PC’s out of the box virus checkers are subscription based and most new PC’s only offer you 30 days for free, so that’s not included in the initial price.

    The laptop hunter ad’s are also very misleading… for example, yes, your PC has twice as much memory (4GB compared to 2GB)…. but the 2GB is twice as much… let me explain… she got 4GB of 800 mhz memory which costs 1/2 as much as 2GB of the faster 1066mhz memory that comes standard on every Mac… and you can’t simply upgrade the bus speed, so your stuck at a SLOWER speed…. the whole computer is SLOWER because of this… even though it has the same processor. If you read spec for spec…. it’s always like this… you get what you pay for. Guess what…. if you spec out a Dell with the same specs as a Mac… well, as the classic bait and switch scam works… you’re buying Dell’s high end computer and paying the same (if not more) then the Apple. And you’ll never get the fit and finish that Apple offers… you can never upgrade the case to something that will match.

    And like someone pointed out… my laptop can run OSX, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Unix, and Linux…. and I can run two at the same time if I need to… try that with one of those “cheap” PCs.

    The funny thing is this… I have a brand new Lenovo desktop PC (running Windows XP)…. and my Apple laptop, running OSX and Windows XP… Well the other day I started a process and had 2 identical sized files I needed processing… (65,000 rows on each)… I started it on my Lenovo and after waiting some time for it to reach 10,000 rows… I decided that this was going to take too long for one computer… so I booted up Windows XP on my Mac and started the other file and immediately switch to OSX to play with something else. When the Lenovo got to 30,000 rows… I went to check the Mac to see where it was…. it was past 30,000 and the PC had a 10,000 row head start… WHAT? When the Apple finished at 65,000 the Lenovo was just over 40,000…. same processor… and the Apple was running two operating systems at the same time and I was using the other operations system.

  • Edward Villa

    Don't mind Sergey. He's just an Apple-hating troll with a chip on his shoulder and a really lousy ultra-leftist blogsite.