According to
Gartner Apple shipped 3,821,000 Mac in 1999. According to
MacNN, quoting IDC, Apple shipped 1,675,000 in 2003 and 1,679,000 in 2002. Now I'm sure there are some slight reporting differences between Gartner and IDC, but I consider them insignificant with regards to the larger issue.
I'm still trying to track down numbers from 2000 because I think Apple crossed the 4 million unit mark. Apple is selling half as many Macs now as they did 5 years ago. They were once a $10 billion dollar company and now they're hovering around $7 billion.
That being said, my larger point, although it may have been muddled, is that Apple is focusing almost entirely on their music initiatives. I don't begrudge them for that. I would do the same if I was presented with a shrinking user base, but an almost unstoppable profit machine like the iPod. Steve once said before he came back to Apple, way way way before your time Quagmire, that he had one more platform in him. It's the iPod.
Deep down in our hearts we all want Apple to dominate the market. They are, but it's not the Mac. Like I said, I would be doing the same thing. The Mac may drive revenue now, but it won't in the future and there will come a point when the Mac is holding Apple and the iPod back. At that point Apple will have to do what a lot of us thought was a good idea back in 1994, you were four years old then Quagmire, ditch the hardware division and focus on software and peripherals. I'm not necessarily talking about OSX either. There is a gigantic market for consumer level software like iLife and Pro software like the Apple Pro Suit. Apple could dominate non-productivity software in the future and own the digital music market.
That's Apple's future as much as I wish it weren't true.
