
Apple Sold More Macs and iDevices Than All Windows PCs Sold in Holiday Quarter - uladzislau
http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2014/2/12/apple-passes-microsoft/?
======
RexRollman
To me, those are two different market segments. Call me back when Apple sells
more Macs than PCs.

~~~
sjwright
Agreed, but that's another statistic for another day. This isn't a story about
market segments, but rather Apple platforms/strategy versus Microsoft
platforms/strategy.

Where I think the analysis falls down is that Microsoft should be awarded XBox
system sales on its side of the ledger -- surely they're at least as much of a
computer as an iPod Touch?

~~~
tsurantino
They're not. I think it's more difficult to make the argument that an XBOX is
used for general computing purposes (and would therefore warrant a great level
of activity, activity which overlaps significantly with what you would do on a
laptop/desktop) than you would for an iDevice.

Though even amongst iDevices you can make distinctions. It's pretty blurry
which is why I think the OP seems to be right (though not at that extreme),
but I don't think including the XBOX would be a good enough offset.

~~~
sjwright
As far as I'm concerned, you can either compare market segments (computers OR
phones) or you can compare product strategies.

Apple's strategy is focusing on small form factor consumer products.
Microsoft's (successful) strategies are focusing on workplace and living room.
Both companies appear to have successful respective strategies, though the big
story is how Apple's new products have stolen share from a huge number of
competitors:

    
    
      - Sony Walkman, et al
      - Nokia, et al
      - Nintendo
      - Windows computers
    

And probably others.

~~~
codex
Apple is also selling into the living room. The Apple TV sells 6-7 million of
them a year.

------
rubiquity
Oh yeah?! Well General Electric sold more toasters, conventional ovens,
microwaves, light bulbs, refrigerators, washers, dryers, and ovens than Apple
did Macs and iThingies! So take that! Hah!

~~~
Corrado
Are you sure? It's been ages since I've purchased any of those things, yet I
have 5 iPods, 3 iPhones, 4 iPads, 2 iMacs, and 2 MBPs, sitting within 50' of
me right now. And the light bulbs I've purchased in the past 2 years have not
been from GE. Just sayin'

------
LaSombra
It's interesting how people compare Apple's sales of different categories to
its competitors single category.

~~~
IBM
They're comparing it because people are starting to use mobile devices as
replacements for PCs. Apple wants you to buy an iPhone or iPad over a Mac
because it has higher margins, but the point is that Microsoft has a steadily
decreasing share of the "computing" market which could have been potential
Windows/Windows Phone licenses sold.

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgTIjxNCUAA-
Dw_.png](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BgTIjxNCUAA-Dw_.png)

~~~
DrStalker
In that case they need to include Android phones and tablets, Windows phones
and tablets and Blackberries.

~~~
gress
Since when did android phones or blackberries run windows?

~~~
scott_karana
I think he was getting at the licensing fees that Android manufacturers and
Google pay to Microsoft on a per-phone basis.

~~~
gress
That's a far-fetched reason to include android devices in the category of
windows pcs.

------
chirau
You couldn't handle being told the silliness of your analysis which is why you
closed your comment thread. You are comparing a single product line from a
company to Apple's whole armory and have the audacity to call it historic.
Shame

~~~
greenyoda
Exactly. "iDevices" include iPods. What exactly is the point of comparing
iPods to PCs? If you're going to do that, you should add in Xbox and Windows
server sales on the Microsoft side.

~~~
benedictevans
If you'd read the post, you'd know that it includes iPod Touches only. And
neither Xboxes nor servers are personal computing devices.

------
datphp
> The comments to this post were entertaining but not very valuable,
> especially since almost all of them made complaints about things that
> weren't actually said. So I've closed comments.

Yeah, might want to close the article for similar reasons.

------
bhauer
I for one enjoy this trend despite being a fan of Microsoft more than Apple. I
can now envision Microsoft as the scrappy underdog fighting the Apple
hegemony. Ah, to become a hipster Microsoft fan.

(I'm only half kidding. I've had friends suggest that their kids see Windows
Phones are more appealing than iPhones because iPhones are for adults. These
are probably oddball kids, but it made me laugh. Microsoft? Hip? Surely you're
mistaken.)

~~~
300bps
I had three iPhones (3G, 4, 4s) and my Windows Phone Lumia 928 is the best
phone I've ever had.

As for iPhone, it really is the grandparents that are buying them now. Between
Android and Windows Phone, there are a lot of great options.

Although I am currently trying to think of a way to get the Lumia Icon while
I'm still under contract.

~~~
bhauer
The sound isolation in the drag-racing video is quite compelling. If I were on
Verizon, I would be doing the same.

I'm on AT&T, so I need to wait for a similar 5" device. No phablets allowed in
my household! I'm hoping they have something fitting right in time for my 920
contract to wrap up.

------
steele
Why would the author count iPhone but have to optionally count Windows Phone?

~~~
iaskwhy
That would require a change to the title of the article so maybe that's why.

------
christoph
Really, why can't somebody make a PC laptop that can compete... Required
things to sell:

1\. Good battery life. (7hrs or more under light use)

2\. Good form factor - this means light weight, metal chassis + decent
smallish lightweight charger, ideally with non-fatal charge connection when
power cord is tripped over by animal/small child/drunk person. I don't want a
2kg laptop if I have to carry around a 1kg charger.

3\. SSD + good GFX + high res panel

4\. Good keyboard + trackpad

The only thing I've seen come close is this:
[http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/08/gigabytes-aurous-dual-
gpu...](http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/08/gigabytes-aurous-dual-gpu-one-
inch/)

And that gets a three hour battery life, which fails on my no. 1 priority
list. Looks like I just need to pay up for a Macbook Pro Retina, which
according to Apple's site, is "New" and it was released in October 2013.

I will happily drop £2k+ for the above.

~~~
lclarkmichalek
I'm sure there will be something that I've overlooked that disqualifies it
from your requirements, but I've been using a Yoga 2 which seems to do what
you want. Graphics aren't great (Intel :/), but it runs DOTA 2, so that's me
covered. Decent battery life (6hr of video playback), excellent form factor
(kinda the point of the machine), 3200x1800 screen, and nice leopard (though
that's subjective I guess)

~~~
pacaro
I do have to say that i love the leopard on the Yoga 2 also. For me the 13"
screen isn't a problem for my 40+ year old eyes, but I do understand why
someone wants a larger form factor. For me the portability and tablet<->laptop
convertibility are way more important.

~~~
christoph
This is one of the more exciting machines on the market. It's about the only
thing that tempts me...

------
gum_ina_package
I'd like to point out that Microsoft has sold more copies of Win8 than Mac has
sold of OS X since it has been released. However, I do like the idea of
Microsoft as being our last hope of fighting the Apple monoculture.

~~~
300bps
Actually, Vista has a higher market share than OS X 10.9:

[http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-
share....](http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-
share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0)

------
sharemywin
except you forgot xboxs and windows servers probably.

------
fleitz
Lets take a step back, fundamentally MS, Google, and Apple are all successful
companies.

They all have different approaches to the market and their numbers of units
shipped, profit per unit, total profit, and total revenue vary wildly.

------
bluedino
Would counting surface devices help?

~~~
DrStalker
Counting Android phones would.

~~~
gress
Android phones don't run windows and are not made by Microsoft.

