Gadgetopia

Three words come to mind: Neener neener neener!

Is it time to buy Apple stock again? Already? ;o)

Ok I'll admit to not knowing all the latest apple pct of market numbers but, the last time I saw any numbers there were around 3-4? According to this article they were at 6%? Where was I? How did I miss that? Man I need to pull myself away from the ol linux machine a bit more.

Speaking of linux, I'm guessing you'll never see the above title with regard to linux since counting linux boxes are nearly impossible. ;-)

This is not saying that 12% of notebooks in use are Apples, but that 12% of the notebooks sold in this particular period are Apple.

For example, assume 96 million notebook users, who, on average, replace/upgrade their computers every 2 years. Then you have 4 million notebooks sold each month, or 12 million per quarter. From April through June 2006, 12% of the notebooks sold were Apple, or 1.44 million. In the previous quarter (January through March 2006), 6% were Apples, or .72 million. If, prior to 2006, 3% of notebooks in use were Apples, this brings that number to 4.5%.

So in terms of quarterly market share, Apple notebooks improved out of single digits (for one quarter!), but in terms of actual usage, they are probably still in the 3.5% to 6% range. Also keep in mind that this is just looking at notebook sales, so it is not necessarily indicative of OS share.

Very true. But how are market share numbers calculated in general? Market share based on what time period? When the press quotes "market share" without a date qualification, what time period is assumed?

This article seems to be talking about sales for the last quarter.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said in an interview that the company had a "fantastic quarter," adding that its share of the U.S. retail notebook market had doubled to 12 percent as measured by units in June from January.