Mac Market Share Continues to Dwindle

[whiff]

Althought Apple seems to be doing better than they have in years, their market share is getting slimmer. Check out this research (below) from today's eMarketer newsletter....

[notbob]

if they had any sense at all they'd release osx for pc and build from the growing anti-ms sentiment, but since they have no sense and try to depend on sales of their stupid proprietary hardware (which is pretty, but hardly worth 2500 bucks), they will probably go under eventually

i'd buy a mac os for pc in a heatbeat, but i'd never buy a mac

[isus]

well, i've heard reports that mac may switch, the biggest problem being the business sharing behind apple and ms... like office v.x and such...

but bc osx is based on unix, aka, freebsd, aka, darwin, it would be (supposedly) quite easy to port osx for x86 machines...

[Wings_of_Azrael]

The reason Mac's OS X works so well is because Macintosh knows of all the hardware and pretty much all the sofware that will be used on their systems. Unlike with PC's, where everyone and their grandmother has software out. I do believe that Microsoft has to work harder on their operating systems than Macintosh. If OS X was ported to the PC, I highly doubt it would function as well as XP. It would probably take Macintosh years to get to the point where Microsoft is, as far as dealing with compatibility issues. Macintosh operates in a controlled environment, unlike the chaotic world of Windows.

[whiff]

unsubstantiated rumors say that Apple has been working on an Intel Pentium-compatible version of OSX for several years, and that its been running in their labs for some time. I can't even imagine what all the repercussions would be if they released such a thing, would probably queer their relationship with Microsoft and harm Mac hardware sales....then again, maybe not....

[wonderboy2005]

actually, mac os x is x86 compliant... to a certain extent. for a few years now, apple has been fitting their os so that it could easily becom hardware idependant, i.e. usable by pcs. they have a group of 12 technitians working on just that. the reasoning is this: should the macs proccessors builder decide to stop making them, or they cant push the clock speed any higher, they want to be able to build there machines using a intel/amd chip. but many believe there is a second reason: they realize their market share is dwindling, and they could become possibly more profitable as a software only company.

i would definately consider geting osx for x86 if it were out there. i would use it as a secondary os tho... sadly, second to windows, or atleast untill another os has the games and programs that windows has. i hate windows, but i love my games and i love my p2p. especially kazaa lite. oh what would i do without that?

[mojo-ris-in]

:devil Very Interesting but not surprising. Apple was basically saved from doom thanks to seed money from MS and had momentum going with the IMAC but failed to bring what the people want, good computers with all the bells and whistles without breaking the bank. I have 3 PC's in my house, a 700 mhz Celeron, a PIII notebook at 600 mhz, and a new P IV 2.0 ghz desktop. What's funny is that the PIV actually cost me less than the Celeron and there is the problem. While PC manufacturers continuously drop the prices of their computers, Mac prices have stayed the same or risen. The only solution to that is letting other manufacturers develop Macs like Pc's are done thereby starting a price war. However I don't think Apple will ever go down that road and seems to be content with being #2 with the common pc user and #1 in the hearts of the uber geek pc user.

[whiff]

Business Week has an article about the whole Penitum Mac thing at http://www.businessweek.com/technolo...20925_0770.htm