http://www.i4u.com/51024/dramatic-pcs-versus-mac-sale-ratio-trend-shows-windows-8-needs-be-huge-successMicrosoft was just hanging around like a lame duck for a while. Sitting on their large install base and just lived of that. The last two years it finally realized that it is time to catch up to Apple again to not be extinct. A great visualization of that is the trend of Multiple of PCs sold vs. Macs.
Microsoft's reaction to Apple creeping onto their sacred turf is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
In 2010 people bought 18 PCs for every 1 Mac.The high point of Microsoft OS domination was 2004 with 54x. Since then its a drastic steep decline to 18x in 2010.
Like all statistics this one requires some deeper analysis. Consider that:
- in 2004 most computer users had desktops not laptops.
- in 2004 Apple was just coming up out of the rubble of near collapse, while MS was riding high on the success of XP.
- in 2004 people were not using phones and tablets in place of computers.
This is not to discount the gist of the story which is legit and interesting. Only to point out that it may not be a case of "people like Apples more than PCs", but more like a picture of market economics changing.
Could be that people are keeping thier pc's longer and Apple seems to come out with new os's that require a user to buy a new machine if they want to upgrade.
The chart probably doesn't include custom built pc's either, but that could be a small fraction of pc sales.
This is a wrong comparison. Windows PCs vs Macs + iPads + iPods + iPhones?
I would clearly draw a line between Macs and iOS devices since their capabilities are different. They should compare only Macs vs Windows PCs. If thats how they want to compare it, then they should be including all Windows Phone 7.X, Windows Mobile 6.X and every single Windows product (not limited to PCs).
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