BW: Signs of the 'halo effect' emerging?
updated 08:15 am EDT, Tue August 3, 2004
\'Halo effect\' helping
BusinessWeek says the and its retail presence may be showing signs of growing the Mac user base: "But watch this space. For starters, it's too easy to dismiss the impact of the stores and the iPod when it comes to developing interest in the Mac. The fact is, Apple's share would almost certainly be even lower without them. And Apple says roughly half the PC buyers in its stores are first-time Mac customers or returnees from Wintel PCs....In a recent survey of likely home PC buyers by the Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics, 8% of respondents said they intended to buy an Apple. That's second only to Dell -- and up from 5% in May..."
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 1999
One thing I've learned
If there's one thing I've learned from Wall street, trends predicted by management or the Street almost always take longer than expected. The .com era is a great example. Amazon has become huge, e-commerce is growing by leaps and bounds and the Internet is changing every corner of the economy, it has just taken a bit longer. Anyone who expected the iPod to change things overnight was insane.
With computer hardware you have to wait at least a full upgrade cycle, if not more. That cycle used to be 3 years, now its longer than that. The real recovery of the platform started with OS X. I would say 3 years post OS X release the platform stabilized and start minor recovery. New products pushed minor expansion in recent years and now the iPod is starting the process in earnest.
Trends are also momentum based, and thier is huge and continuing momentum behind iPod. Look for platform expansion to rise slowly in the remainder of this year, but show significant pace in 2H05.