Apple haters love to point out that Macs are only used by a very small minority of personal computer users. And that it will always be that way.
And you know what? They’re right.
But, who cares when you’re making all the money?! At least that’s how the people inside Apple are looking at it, I’m sure.
Asymco recently published an economic look at the PC market. It correctly shows that the PC market is shrinking, most likely due to consumers buying tablets and being completely satisfied with them. But, what’s also interesting is that it shows Apple has a 45% market share, when looked at in terms of money being made.
45% market share
Yes, Apple just has larger profit margins on their machines. They also maintain a tight hold on the Mac and the OS X operating system, so if you want a Mac, you do business with Apple. On the contrary, the PC market is heavily fractured and always has been.
Profit margins for PC makers has always been pretty low. But, that fact was made up for in volume. Problem is, that’s changing. From the post:
The real problem for the PC vendors is not that they have such low margins–they’ve had low margins for decades. It’s that the volumes which “made up for” low margins are disappearing. Apple is not immune to a gradual erosion of Mac volumes, but they have positioned themselves for growth with devices and content commerce and services. They have essentially “escaped” PCs and indeed caused the need to escape in the first place.
While 45% of profits in the PC market is already impressive, it is nothing compared to the 72% of profit they have in the mobile market.
That, my friends, is one big company.
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