Why does StatCounter disagree? They find OS X user share currently at an all-time high of 11%: http://gs.statcounter.com/#desktop-os-ww-monthly-200807-2016...
Mac’s share falls to five-year low
11–20 of 140 posts
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#12This overall slowdown could be the reason why Apple made a gimmick for newcomers, i.e. the touch bar. They needed to try to boost sales.
They don't think like that. "Let's make a gimmick for newcomers".
They just legitimately thought it was great and will it enough to impress people and shut them up about the late revamp of the MBP line.
And it could be good, with certain provisions, but not will all the other BS coming with it.
The main issue is it seems nobody at the top could see this -- and I mean see this when they said ok initially, because surely they did know the issues before launching the machine, when it got to wider testing (before that it was only small teams that had seen the whole new laptop plus strip, as it their usual modus operandi).
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#13Why does StatCounter disagree? They find OS X user share currently at an all-time high of 11%: http://gs.statcounter.com/#desktop-os-ww-monthly-200807-2016...
StatCounter's answer to that question: http://gs.statcounter.com/faq#net-apps
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#14PSA: This "news" comes courtesy of a company called Net Applications, which I've never heard of before. Looks like they're a web analytics firm. So take this with a huge grain of salt, because they can't actually see real user share, all they can see is the share of people who browse to their clients' sites.
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#15Does this really matter? I've also felt that recent mac desktop/laptop releases have been poor. But is it really important to satisfy the masses in this market? It seems like we're in a world where most people could be quite happy with doing most things on a phone or tablet. That's not to say it isn't likely an important strategic market (after all it's the only platform you can develop iOS apps on). But having a lar…
>It seems like we're in a world where most people could be quite happy with doing most things on a phone or tablet.
We're not those people, though, and we do care.
>That's not to say it isn't likely an important strategic market (after all it's the only platform you can develop iOS apps on). But having a large share of this market might not be important.
As long as people also have jobs, it will be.
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#16Whether this was a reflection of overall PC slowdown, I don't know but Apple execs need to make some course corrections sooner rather than later. The apparent neglect of developers with respect to some of the changes (and non-changes) in the laptop and desktop lines seems to be giving many developers pause and concern.
One thing that Windows (somewhat famously) gets is "developers! developers! developers!"
Apple has a passionate, loyal developer community. Developers who create iOS apps use OS X machines to do it. They spend almost twice as much on an OS X machine (vs. a Windows machine) to get over the barrier to entry.
Apple has never made anywhere close to the same investment in their developers that their developers have made in Apple. Their mindset can be summarized as (I think):
1. iOS and OS X are "easy to develop on" (so Apple thinks) so WWDC is sufficient as far as developer relations. Lately even WWDC is an empty shell.
2. Huge software failures don't seem to touch Apple's revenue stream (e.g. Maps, iCloud, security exploits), which over time makes Apple more and more deaf to the realities of software outside their company.
3. Apple execs are "courageous" and visionary. The company has a very top-down culture.
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#17PSA: This "news" comes courtesy of a company called Net Applications, which I've never heard of before. Looks like they're a web analytics firm. So take this with a huge grain of salt, because they can't actually see real user share, all they can see is the share of people who browse to their clients' sites.
Hmm yeah, for some reason I conflated them with NetApp, the storage company. Glad I double-checked – I haven't heard of Net Applications either.
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#18Whether this was a reflection of overall PC slowdown, I don't know but Apple execs need to make some course corrections sooner rather than later. The apparent neglect of developers with respect to some of the changes (and non-changes) in the laptop and desktop lines seems to be giving many developers pause and concern.
One thing that Windows (somewhat famously) gets is "developers! developers! developers!" Apple has a passionate, loyal developer community. Developers who create iOS apps use OS X machines to do it. They spend almost twice as much on an OS X machine (vs. a Windows machine) to get over the barrier to entry. Apple has never made anywhere close to the same investment in their developers that their developers have made i…
I think Microsoft forgot about developers for a while. The Windows 8 timeframe wasn't a great time to be a Microsoft developer. They have been recovering mindshare lately, but it's the same back and forth. It's less clear that developer mindshare even matters as much these days when the web is the real desktop platform for most software.
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#19They are expensive and underpowered. I used to get the top of the line macbook but it's not worth it anymore. It's starts to look like the John Sculley era. If it wasn't for the pro audio support I would jump on the linux boat.
Apple prices like a luxury item: no sales etc.. But the thing is - tech is not like fashion. You can't just call it 'Gucci' and hold the plebes at bay with high prices. It's utility - so when there is less utility, people will drop apple and go elsewhere. If they want to keep luxury brand status they actually have to provide something of value.
This is an odd sentiment to hear on HN.
We are usually technical people, surely we can see past "spec" as the only differentiator of two laptops.
Apple are priced like a high-end business quality laptop. (except upgrades are a higher mark-up) if you compare laptops based on the quality of their build Apple laptops are quite competitive.[0]
That's before you factor in little things that don't seem to make it to business line laptops even like protection against USBKiller[1] and getting BIOS firmware updates 8 years after buying a laptop.[2]
It's disingenuous to compare an Apple Macbook with an Acer Aspire on things like specification without taking into account all the little things.
If you haven't noticed, spec selling has thoroughly destroyed the bottom end of the laptop market, it's super difficult today to get a decent quality laptop because manufacturers are just throwing out devices with high spec and corner cuts everywhere else.
I say this, as a person attempting to buy a Dell Precision 5520. I'm not an apple fanboy, but I appreciate quality. It's not a fashion label.
[0] http://i.imgur.com/Gjnr0sw.png
[1] http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/71174...
Re: Mac’s share falls to five-year low
#20PSA: This "news" comes courtesy of a company called Net Applications, which I've never heard of before. Looks like they're a web analytics firm. So take this with a huge grain of salt, because they can't actually see real user share, all they can see is the share of people who browse to their clients' sites.
So what would be the best way to estimate OS market share? Stopping short from including household OS usage in worldwide census?