Mac To PC Ratio – A Look Into The Future

So the latest news is that Macs are closing in on PCs. The current ratio is down to 20 is to 1.

Almost everybody already wrote about this but I only have one simple question for this article.

Why is it a headline-worthy?

• PCs and Microsoft has always dominated the market in terms of number of units sold and active devices.
• It’s the lowest margin since 1996 and the same for 1985 (a year after Macintosh was released).

Was it expected?

Upon assessing the graph from Asymco, the company that released the figures, the downward trend in the Mac-PC ratio already started after 2004.

There are several reasons pointed out by Horace Dediu of Asymco. The most significant cause of the turn of events in 2004 was the release of laptops (Macbook). A Macbook is totally different from the typical Microsoft-powered laptops because of the degree of product integration. It is not just about the specs, speed, and performance rather more on the aesthetics and feel.

Also, some more cool Apple products were released – iPod, iPad, and later on iPhone – which promoted Apple’s brand awareness more.

On the part of Windows

Windows 8 consumer preview is already out and new devices powered by this OS will be in the market soon. We anticipate the release of their Surface Tablet and the Windows smartphone.

This is a good year, maybe, for Microsoft. But the previous years were really unstable for the company. So far nothing new – except for the netbook-designed Windows 7. Vista did not make any waves, and it was a failure. We can still remember (and still use) XP better than Vista.

During the same period Apple released, iPad and iPhone, the game changers, which promoted the brand more.

PC, Mac sales – battle of operating systems

Going forward, what do we expect this year and in the next coming years? Like in my other articles, I pointed out that this year is special for so many reasons – release of Windows 8, iOS 6, etc.

We can also look at the trend in sales of the operating systems that these two company released. Going back to the graph, after 1994, the gap between PC and Mac sales widen because of Windows 95. It went on in 1998 (Win 98), 2000 (Win 2000) until 2004, wherein it reached its peak.

Conclusion

In my opinion, PC will still have the edge when it comes to the total ratio as compared to Mac. However, one important aspect of the competition between these two companies is the value being given to the customers for each product that the purchase.

The PC may have an edge in the total number of functioning units however, the satisfaction of each PC users must also be looked upon for us to understand the level of user experience, which is the most important thing of all when it comes to consumer products.