[thelist] Flash stats.

[Judah McAuley]

At 05:39 PM 5/10/01 -0500, Ben wrote:

>>As far 4.2% being low, doesn't that pretty much jive with the market
>>penetration rate?
>
>Only if you base market penetration on new computer sales (like the 
>industry does - which is wrong).  If you count installed base, Macintosh 
>penetration is much higher (because people generally use Macs longer than 
>they use PCs, although this is changing).  I have no numbers but it's 
>closer to 10% than 5%.

This isn't correct either.  If over the course of 5 years you use 1 Mac and 
I use 2 PC's (serially, not in parallel) then it doesn't matter that you 
are using your machine longer, the penetration would be the same: 1 Mac, 1 
PC.  Penetration rates would have to be figured (roughly) by calculating 
the percentage of 1st time computer buyers for each platform and the 
percentage of people buying computers who are switching platforms.  These 
are the only people who will change the penetration rates.  That being 
said, one the big to-do's with the Imac was that Apple for the first time 
in years had a machine that attracted first time computer users and 
attracted some Wintel converts.  Now given the overall number of people who 
own computers, those gains represent a fairly small percentage.  But at 
least it was something.

Judah