Apple Market Share on the rise. Is Mac Mini behind it?

Apple Market Share on the rise. Is Mac Mini behind it?

One of the primary reasons behind Steve Jobs’ Mac Mini launch was to get back at the PC market with the cheapest offering from the Macintosh maker ever. Microsoft and Intel took the initiative from Apple when they offered their cheap computers based on x86 platform. Since then, Macintosh in spite of the fact much superior (arguably speaking!) have always kept a low profile compared to the cheaper alternative in PC platform based on Microsoft Windows and Intel Processors.

However, iMac started changing that trend. It was the time of stylish Macs to enter the market. They were not exactly cheap, but they provided a package, which was irresistible to many. Many people switched (‘Switchers’ as Apple likes to call them) and more are doing so on a regular basis. However, closed standards and lack of application support meant people are still buying PCs in large numbers. Mostly due to the huge difference in pricing.

Apple’s latest ace is to attack the budget computer segment with an offering, which makes it easier for existing PC owners to switch. Mac Mini came with just the CPU part in the original package letting customers to use their existing monitors and other components with it. And results are somewhat appearing on the horizon. Critics claim that Mac Mini is still too young to cause any significant changes to the Apple’s turnover. However, Apple is still showing growth in the market share.

Part of it can be contributed to the iPod Magic. iPod brought back people to the Apple’s way of working things out. In a survey by an Analyst firm Morgan Stanley, 19% of iPod users plan to convert from PC platform to Macs in the near future. This number is quite impressive when compared to original estimates. In fact, the latest statistics reveal that Apple’s market share has grown from 2.2% during the last quarter to 2.9% now. This number can only improve in the future with the numbers from Mac Mini to add to it.