∞ The Mac is far from dead

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There is no doubt that Apple’s focus over the last couple of years has been on its mobile devices and operating system. However, if the latest quarter proves anything, it proves that the Mac is far from dead.

When Apple announced the lineup for its Worldwide Developers Conference, the Mac was conspicuously missing. Apple even took the time to remove Mac developers from the Apple Design Awards, instead opting to only include iOS developers.

This lead many people to believe that Apple was giving up on the Mac completely. Nothing could be further from the truth.

In the latest quarterly earnings Apple set a new quarterly record for Mac shipments at 3.47 million units. Just to give you an idea of what that means over last year’s Mac shipments, it’s a 33 percent increase.

What people have to remember is that Apple is not just a computer company anymore. They are a consumer electronics company and the focus of its engineers will shift from time to time so it can complete projects.

This year that project was iOS 4. Apple moved resources from other places in the company to get that finished. Most notably, Mac OS X development.

The other major thing to remember is that Apple shipped 3.27 million iPads during the quarter. That’s significant because the iPad didn’t eat into Mac sales. They may have taken some PC business and most likely a lot of Netbook sales, but nothing from the Mac.

Clearly, increased sales for the iPhone, the introduction of the iPad and the popular iPod are driving sales of the Mac to the highest levels the company has ever seen.


  • http://www.marketingtactics.com Dave Barnes

    New iMacs, please. Soon, please.

    • Cris

      I think the next Mac announced will be something in the Mac Pro realm. It has not been refreshed for more than a year and a half, almost.

  • Daniel Swanson

    LOOK (at Apple’s statistics–FACT, not opinion), don’t think.

  • Hamranhansenhansen

    Also, people have to remember that the key issue in Mac OS development is 3rd party developers updating their apps to be fully 64-bit Cocoa. Not new Mac OS features, not new Mac features, not new apps. Getting all 3rd party apps to 64-bit Cocoa is a long process. Most of Apple’s pro apps, most of Adobe’s Creative Suite are still not there. So there is a ton of behind-the-scenes infrastructure work going on with the Mac platform, including Snow Leopard itself, which was all infrastructure. We are all getting ready for Mac OS 11.

    So just enjoy Snow Leopard and all the great apps we have.

    Also, remember that iOS runs on OS X, just like Mac OS. iOS 4 has the Snow Leopard core. Features that were added for iPhone or iPad benefit future Macs also. Future Macs will have touch and whatever else “for free” just like iPhone got typography and stability from the Mac for free.

    It’s a great time to be an Apple user.