Well, the numbers get kind of confusing, but let's look at some research,
to lessen the amount of "suspect"ing going on.
The U.S. Microcomputer Statistics Committee reported recently that Apple's
U.S. market share grew to 10.8% in the second calendar quarter of 1995
compared to 10.2% in the same quarter in 1994. Our shipments for the
quarter grew 12%, compared to a 5% growth in the industry overall. That
doesn't directly address where or what, but it should indicate to you that
Apple's sales are growing faster than the industry's. That's important if
we can continue it for the long haul.
Broken down a bit, IDC estimates that unit shipments of Macintosh grew 20%
worldwide for the quarter versus 15% growth for Compaq, 18% for IBM, and
19% for the market overall. No doubt more total systems were sold in the
PC market, but again, as long as Apple continues to grow faster, eventually
(the big if for any manufacturer!) Apple will surpass the other platform.
I know it's a bold statement.
I don't know of any study that would have determined where our installed
base is, but let's look at if from segments. QED says Apple has 63% of the
installed base in U.S. K-12 institutions. We have 50% of the U.S.
chemical, pharaceutical, biotechnology, scientific, and engineering
markets. I "suspect" these combined markets account for a pretty
significant number of computers. What educators don't often see merely
because of their personal bandwidth for researching such things, is that
Macintoshes are everywhere, not just in publishing. Look on some of the
other Internet news groups and you'll find discussions everywhere by people
in real jobs doing real work with Macintoshes. Lawrence Livermore, KPMG,
BP, Arco, US West, Boeing, FedEx, and on and on. Believe me, these aren't
publishing functions.
>2. The "downside" of this is the availability of low cost/no cost software
>for educational purposes is probably much greater with the Mac.
And actually, since we started building the various Reference Bundles that
package software with CPU's for education, software has gotten incredibly
cheap. Look at the business case for a developer: S/He can develop,
market, track purchases and payments all by him or herself, or S/He can let
Apple market, track purchases and payments, leaving him or her to focus on
what s/he finds most exciting: making software that solves problems for
educators.
>3. PCs dominate business, Macs dominate schools. Unless you're in graphics
>or publishing, seldom would you need to know both systems....
Or another way, since the PC world keeps trying to move their operating
system closer in functionality to the Macintosh, why not just use Macintosh
in case they ever do catch up! :)
>4. What are you preparing your students for?
Exactly! If you're preparing them to do bookkeeping, find the software
that meets your philosophy. This is always a curious question for me,
because I wonder how many times educators face having to research what tool
is used by employers so that the school matches that tool. Most businesses
don't use hard back books or even soft-cover books -- they use three ring
binders! Should your libraries be redone to accomodate this? How can
publicly funded schools hope to keep up with for-profit businesses?
How many of you still use Apple II's and 80286-class machines running DOS?
This isn't because you believe business still does, is it? I think it's
because you so infrequently get to invest in technology! When you bought
those 286's, that's what people were using. They're not using those
anymore. So buy now what people will be using in the future. The phrase
from the computer journalists was "Windows 95 = Mac 89" Arguably, you
could have graduated 6 whole classes in the meantime who would be ready to
lead the way with their employers, and your remaining students would still
be current for another several years.
So the real message is: You have to address a whole different set of
concerns than businesses do. Recognize it. Address it. Explain it to
parents. But get back to improving our kids!
Respectfully,
Jim
Jim Tobin, Sr. System Engineer 907/349-3755 voice
Apple Computer, Inc. 907/349-7507 fax
AppleLink: J.TOBIN eWorld: J.TOBIN
Internet: tobinj@apple.com