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Apple Corners 5% of PC Market?

Posted on April 20th, 2007 at 5:02 pm · 4 Comments
Filed in: RSS Mac OS Books   

Well, it depends on how you calculate that.

I downloaded my inveestment quotes into Quicken today, I noticed the little newspaper icon beside Apple’s name in the list. The icon indicates a news story for the company. I clicked the icon and found the headine “Apple Corners 5% of U.S. PC Market” with a link to the article on Yahoo! Finance. Here’s the intro:

Fueled by a 30 percent year-over-year growth rate, Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL) shipments hit 741,000 units in the first quarter, up from 570,000 units from a year ago.

And according to Gartner, that tally equates to 5 percent market share in the U.S. PC market, up a percentage point from this time a year ago.

The article includes a table that tallies up the units sold and percentages, making Apple look like it’s ready to overtake Toshiba in the never-ending race for market share. But before you start celebrating, take a moment to think about what the table really represents: First Quarter 2007 units sold. Not total units in the hands of computer users.

I’ve been using a Mac long enough to remember the days when Apple had a 23% of the personal computer market. And then 15%. And then 8%. Heck, I remember the numbers getting as dismal as an estimate less than 3%. So when I saw the 5% figure in the article headline, I had to check it out. Needless to say, I’m slightly disappointed.

The fact that new Macs are being sold at higher rates than before is great. But there’s a long way to go before “market share” celebrations can begin.

I have the champagne on ice, waiting.

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Security Update 2007-004 Now Available

Posted on April 20th, 2007 at 6:53 am · No Comments
Filed in: RSS Mac OS Books   

Information from Software Update.

Security Update 2007-004 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:

  • AFP Client
  • AirPort
  • CarbonCore
  • diskdev_cmds
  • fetchmail
  • ftpd
  • gnutar
  • Help Viewer
  • HID Family
  • Installer
  • Kerberos
  • Libinfo
  • Login Window
  • network_cmds
  • SMB
  • System Configuration
  • URLMount
  • Video Conference
  • WebDAV

For detailed information on this update, visit http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798.

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