The last time this kind of thing was being analyzed in detail, Apple's market share of the PC industry was insignificant, but it earned something like 35% of all of the profit of all PC manufacturers combined.
Anybody care to chime in with some citations supporting/refuting this?
But it's a little confusing. It says Apple's unit share is between 4% and 5%, but what they call its profit share is its share of revenues, which depending on how you count seems to be 20%-25%. Given that Apple's profit margins are higher than PC manufacturers, Apple's share of the profits has to be higher than its share of revenues.
This is actually astounding, it's the opposite of what you might naively assume: In most markets, you would expect the revenue leader to be the one with the lowest prices and thinnest margins who tries to "make it up on volume."
Apple has either slightly more or approximately the same revenues as Dell and HP, while selling half as many computers at (obviously) higher prices and higher margins.
The 20-25% number is for US only and that too for home computer sales only. While I agree with you that Apple is doing great because of the higher profit margin and increased sales, I still won't call them a winner until they have at least 50% profit share.
Let me see if I understand you correctly: There are dozens or even hundreds of PC manufacturers competing with Apple and they are only winners if they have 50% of the profits in the market?
Is that your metric for "winning?"
You asked other people what they mean by winning. If you want to have a productive conversation, I suggest you ensure that your definition of winning matches theirs. Otherwise, there will only be confusion.
Anybody care to chime in with some citations supporting/refuting this?
I found: http://gigaom.com/apple/mac-lands-one-two-punch-against-pcs-...
But it's a little confusing. It says Apple's unit share is between 4% and 5%, but what they call its profit share is its share of revenues, which depending on how you count seems to be 20%-25%. Given that Apple's profit margins are higher than PC manufacturers, Apple's share of the profits has to be higher than its share of revenues.
This is actually astounding, it's the opposite of what you might naively assume: In most markets, you would expect the revenue leader to be the one with the lowest prices and thinnest margins who tries to "make it up on volume."
Apple has either slightly more or approximately the same revenues as Dell and HP, while selling half as many computers at (obviously) higher prices and higher margins.