New MacBook Line-up Calms Wintel’s Fears of a Mac Takeover

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14 Jun, 2012 2:18 am

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Wintel-based notebook vendors heaved a big sigh of relief after Apple announced their new MacBook line-up at WWDC. Apple only introduced new Intel Ivy Bridge processors and a retina display for one MacBook Pro. Whewee! Nothing too huge, and the prices are still much higher for MacBooks, allowing the new Windows 8 notebooks and ultrabooks to steal the show.

Apple people have always been a small and devoted group of consumers and Wintel’s hoping that Apple’s new line-up won’t be enough to seduce Windows users to the dark side. The retina display costs much much more than the average Joe is willing to pay for it- double the price of an HD display- and when Windows 8 has a line-up of thinner, lighter ultrabooks with HD displays on sale for less, well, it’s no contest. Wintel doesn’t expect the new MacBook Air to detract from its Windows Ultrabook sales and doubts that the retina display will draw too big of a crowd on the heavier MacBook Pro. We’ll see in time how this all plays out.

Source: DigiTimes


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  • http://twitter.com/patrickjquinn patrick quinn

    You are aware that Apples market share is growing very very rapidly compared with Microsofts in the desktop space yes? The overwhelming response i got on forums and social media in the hours after Apples WWDC appearance  was that they had just stepped up the Laptop game big time. Once this perforates down the line to the 13inch in the next refresh, assuming the Wintel camp hasn’t countered with more MacAlikes ultra-book types i can for see and astounding number of people making the jump. And who can blame them. 

  • CyberGusa

     Apple is only rapidly growing in the mobile market space, their laptop and desktop space has always been small and continues to be small.  There’s even talk of them discontinuing desktops and the larger MacBook Pros are being phased out.

    Really, in terms of total profits iOS makes Apple far more profit than OSX.

  • Luke

    It’s clear you haven’t really looked at the actual market share numbers. It’s only the mobile market and it’s even true that iPad is taking somes sales from their notebooks.

    It will be interesting to see sales of all the new Windows 8 ultrabooks and slates that were just announced. It’s definitely creating lots of interest from the industry.

  • http://twitter.com/patrickjquinn patrick quinn

    No. Apples desktop share has been growing much faster than PC which has seen no where near as much growth. The graph shows a fairly consistent line for the PC market and a  dramatic spike over the last few years for Macs. As we now know the 17 inch pro is gone. But the MacBook and iMac line ups still account for a sizable chunk of apples over all revenue.

    More and more people are buying Mac now days. Thats not to say they are even a light year near enough to the PC market to cause concern but still in independent tests done by engadget and gizmodo (even if gizmodo is the bane of my existence) when pitted against the current crop of ultrabooks the Air came out on top.

    I’m a technologist and a Mac aficionado. I wouldn’t have made the claim unless i knew the current market trend, e.g Apple’s desktop market share being up from 3.2% to 10.4% in under 2 years. 

    Im not even sorry for the long comment.

  • CyberGusa

     Sorry but those numbers are often exaggerated, especially since Apple doesn’t actually release any real numbers and we have to figure it out second hand.

    While also such numbers depend on region, for example the number you’re quoting is just the US % but the world market is still closer to 5% for average (with some countries being close to US numbers and others down), and it’s also not the first time Apple has hit about 10% before in any one country, but it never lasts.

    It’s just a cycles of back and forth between Apple and other PC’s. 

    And Apple knows this, which is why we are seeing that they are eliminating some of their products, the MacBook Pro would never have been eliminated if they were doing as well as you’re trying to suggest, and they may stop making desktops altogether. 

    Really, thinning of the product line up is the first sign of trouble and while OSX usage may have increased about 30% in the last year, mobile usage for Apple has increased over 120% and that’s where they’re making most of their profits from and consequently where they’re considering shifting their focus to.

  • http://twitter.com/patrickjquinn patrick quinn

    It hardly makes sense to continue selling a product that there is no longer a market for… its not bailing at the first sign of trouble, its just good business sense. 

  • CyberGusa

    Sorry but that’s just wrong, the same people who bought 17″ MBP are still buying them.  Apple would just rather focus on better selling products.

    Fact is Apple has never managed to get a large percentage of PC users, but they are insanely successful with portable and mobile devices and that’s where they are focusing on.

    Leaving their OSX offerings to dwindle to just the most popular.

    So it’s not that there’s no market for those systems, it’s just there’s much more profit for Apple in their other products.