Friday 18 November 2011

Apple confirms Mac sales are up, up, up

We know today is an iPhone-focused event, but before he got into it Apple [AAPL] CEO, Tim Cook, let launch a few fascinating snippets about the Mac, telling us the Lion OS is spreading faster than any before, and that Mac sales are growing much, much faster than those of the rest of the PC industry.


How fast this Apple grows
In the same Apple "town hall" which hosted launch of the original iPod ten years ago, Cook alluded to the Hong Kong launch last month of an Apple retail store, telling us that Mac sales at that single store on launch day exceeded those of any other store anywhere.
Apple's chance in China looks huge, too: Over 100,000 people visited the Shanghai store on launch day, he said.
OS X Lion continues to grow fast, with over six million copies downloaded so far -- that's a much swifter uptake than we saw for Snow Leopard, but some may feel Cook's comparison with Windows 7 adoption slants some of the evidence.
That pretty much confirms Net Applications data we saw hit the news brands in the last 24-hours.
[ABOVE: Apple has its own clip we can expect to see a little later, but this six minute story shows the length of the Hong Kong Apple retail store queue. No one else has this.]
Resurgence, resurgence, resurgence
It's when it comes to the Mac versus PC growth curves that Cook really nailed the story: while the Mac platform has grown 23 percent since last year, we've seen just 4 percent growth in general PC industry sales. At least, that's according to Apple and IDC.
There was a time when Mac marketshare was measured at or around 20 million seats. No more. That figure has more or less tripled, the CEO said -- there's now 58 million Mac users worldwide.
In August, NPD figures confirmed Apple is selling one-in-four PCs sold at US retail. A resurgence indeed.
The iPod classic is a gateway to Apple
Cook then took time to mention that over 300 million iPods have been sold in the last decade, giving the product 78 percent market share.
There's still questions if that product will see an upgrade, but we'll learn more as the Apple event continues.
What are your thoughts? Speak up, I'm interested.
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