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Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
By Applelinks Senior Editor John H. Farr
The assertion by Mercury News reporter Jon Fortt that Apple's "switch" campaign isn't causing massive Window defections has to be taken with a modicum of detachment. For one thing, it repeats industry conventional wisdom about the impossibility of Apple ever increasing sales to Windows users. For another, in calling Dell's increased market share a sign of that company's success in attracting "switchers," it misses the whole point. As Del Miller's latest Difference Engine column for MacOpinion ("Chill Out on the Marketshare, Already!") makes clear, measuring "Apple's unit computer sales against all other PC makers in the world" is arbitrary and misleading. And the switch campaign has nothing to do with whether Dell increases sales at the expense of other PC makers, but whether Apple increases sales at the expense of the Windows platform. We have no idea whether the campaign has been effective. Apple has from time to time cited figures on the proportion of Mac sales attributable to purchases by former Windows users, but this information is less than totally reliable, depending on the willingness of customers to be truthful and forthcoming when questioned or registering their purchases. We have to think that some people have been influenced by the ads, of course. But calling it a flop because Apple's market share hasn't skyrocketed is just plain silly. We think Apple has more work to do in the propaganda department, however. Among many Windows users, the kinds of myths regularly shot down by Mac sites (high cost, no software, etc.) are still very much alive. Just the other day we had a brief conversation with a friend, a Windows user, who mentioned how nice it would be to be able to perform such-and-such a task on her PC if she only could (sorry, we forget just what it was), and we offered, "Sure, just get a Mac!" Her response? "Yeah right, plunk down $2,000 for a new computer ... " We immediately countered that used, refurbished, and even new iBooks and eMacs could be had for for considerably less than a thousand dollars. Somehow, we don't think she believed it.
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