q32009
Latest
Apple has 91 percent revenue share of premium market
Apple's quarterly earnings aren't the only bits of good news going around: according to Betanews, the market research firm NPD has found that Apple's revenue market share in the premium price segment (computers costing $1000 or more) is 91 percent, up from 88 percent in May.Not only is this good news for Apple, it is a continuation of a positive trend: their premium revenue share is way up from the first quarter of 2008, when their cut was about 66 percent. However, most original equipment manufacturers and Microsoft prefer to measure success by unit market share, or how many individual computers were moved regardless of price. Gartner and IDC place the unit market share of PCs running some version of Microsoft Windows at 90 percent, while Macs have 8.7 percent.Breaking down the numbers, this news isn't too surprising. According to NPD, the average selling price of a computer sold at retail in June was $701. Splitting this figure into Macs and PCs gives an ASP of $515 for any Windows PC sold. A Mac, on the other hand, has an ASP of a whopping $1400. Considering that Apple chooses not to wage the netbook price war and that the bulk of PCs purchased cost less than $1000, it makes sense that Apple would control the premium segment. They were also able to boost their sales figures in this bracket by lowering the high-end prices $100 or more on each model while keeping all but one computer in the $1000+ segment. But hey, we'll take good news however we have to slice it, right? [via The Loop]
Garmin delays Nuvifone G60 yet again, Q3 launch now planned
Hey, remember the Nuvifone? Sure you do -- it's Garmin's entry into the wide world of smartphones. You know, the company's Linux-based, proprietary OS phone that's heavy on GPS integration? Well according to a recent report, plans to launch the device in the first half of 2009 have stalled, with the company stating that it will be pushing the window back towards something closer to Q3. President and COO Cliff Pemble expounded on the difficulties of building a smartphone from scratch during a conference call with analysts, noting "Smartphones are complicated and bringing one to market that's built totally from the ground up on a custom Linux platform is not an easy task." If you'll recall, the original announcement of the Nuvifone was way back in January of 2008, with a planned release in Q3 of that year -- placing this new launch a full 12 months out from the intended street date. We're all for competitors in this market, but it seems like maybe the folks at Garmin jumped the gun with all these dates they've been dropping on us -- missed launches don't exactly promote confidence.[Via PMP Today]
