Despite having just five percent of global PC sales, Apple has 10.5 percent of the revenue, an analyst firm announced Wednesday. For over a half-decade, the Cupertino, Calif. company has been on a steady growth path from just 3 percent in 2004.
“Apple’s pricing discipline in holding Mac prices fairly steady in the face of plunging Windows PC prices translated into dollar share gains that materially exceeded unit share gains,” Needham & Company analyst Charlie Wolf told investors Wednesday.
It is the same at home, where Apple sells about 10 percent of the computers, but earns around 20 percent of the revenue. In Europe, the company’s dollar share is 14.2 percent while controlling just 6.4 percent of sales. The European numbers echo a 63 percent jump in sales of home computers for Apple versus 10.7 percent for PC makers.
Another set of numbers also favor Apple, which primarily sells to the home and classroom. PC sales into homes in December were 57 percent of the market, versus 33 percent for corporate purchases, according to Wolf. Then there is the iPad, which the analyst could grab “a significant percentage of the school market” as the tablet takes center stage in classrooms.
Also benefiting Mac sales is the continued ‘halo effect‘ from the still-popular iPod. Some PC owners go to pick up an iPod and come away with another Apple product.
“The iPod was the first Apple product Windows users ever purchased,” Wolf said. “And the iPod so delighted them that a meaningful percentage switched to the Mac as a result,” he added.
Apple’s retailing prowess is also provided as a reason the company gets more revenue per sale. Consumers entering an Apple store “could not fail to notice and appreciate the free support infrastructure Apple bundles into the price of Macs,” the analyst wrote. Nearly 50 percent of Mac sales come from PC owners, Apple has said.
As a result, the first quarter of fiscal 2010 was Apple’s best, registering 3.36 million Macs for a 50 percent revenue jump to $3.38 billion. Experts believe January Mac sales jumped 36 percent, creating the potential for 2.8 million units sold for the entire quarter.
[Via AppleInsider and BusinessWeek]
