[chucker]

http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/06...8_id.html?.v=1

Six months ago, then global PC market share leader Dell, Inc., was taking a beating from Wall Street sell-side analysts for its declining margins and profits. As a result, shares traded for as low as $19 - a five-year low. Since share prices bottomed in July, they are up more than 20%. The reason: Dell is now focusing on profits as opposed to gaining market share. And while the company has fallen out of 1st place in global PC market share - replaced by rival Hewlett-Packard - the company's margins have started climbing again, as has the average price-per-unit of PC sales.

Guess they've taken a lesson or two from Apple. Market share isn't everything!

[MCQ]

Yeah, their discounting has been much less aggressive lately. They said a couple months ago that they were going to simplify their sales structure and reduce the billions of promotions on their products.

I think the addition of AMD as an option also allows them to hit some of the lower price points they used to have while maintaining more healthy margins.

That said, Apple's stock has been up over 50% over nearly the same timeframe.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by chucker http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/06...8_id.html?.v=1 Guess they've taken a lesson or two from Apple. Market share isn't everything!

It's not everything, but it's a big something. Any company can take a hatchet to its workforce, product lines, etc. to cut down on spending and raise profits.

Worldwide, Dell and HP account for about 1/3 of all PC shipments.
In the US, Dell accounts for 1/3 of all PC shipments alone. HP almost 1/4.

I'm guessing it'll be a lot easier for Dell to go on a spending diet than for Apple to even hit 10% US marketshare.

[chucker]

Originally Posted by MCQ That said, Apple's stock has been up over 50% over nearly the same timeframe.

Indeed.

Originally Posted by Eugene I'm guessing it'll be a lot easier for Dell to go on a spending diet than for Apple to even hit 10% US marketshare.

Possibly, but financially, Apple could hardly be better off.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by chucker Possibly, but financially, Apple could hardly be better off.

Too many bad memories of Sept. 2000.

[joveblue]

Is there anywhere that you can see regular surveys of market-shares? Particularly for Apple...

[MCQ]

Usually you have to cobble the statistics together from various news stories that get their information from IDC or Gartner, whose reports cost a good bit of money.

Also note that sometimes the news will report US marketshare, while others will report worldwide marketshare. I'm not sure if Australian news sources break theirs out by Australia or Asia marketshare.

Here's a few recent ones from Macworld:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/10...hare/index.php
http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/07...hare/index.php
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/03...hare/index.php

I think Brad might have a chart for marketshare, although he might keep track of some other statistic (total CPUs sold?).

[chucker]

Originally Posted by MCQ Also note that sometimes the news will report US marketshare, while others will report worldwide marketshare.

In addition, there are more subtle, yet relevant, differences in gauging.

For example, some institutions may only gather data from retail sales and therefore exclude online/phone sales, thus cutting Dell out almost entirely.

Some may only refer to desktops, not laptops, and not servers. Some may refer to personal sales only, not high-profile government/corporation/organization/education sales.

So in general, it's best to look at multiple conflicting numbers; the truth is somewhere near their average.

[Windowsrookie]

It's amazing how in 2000 Apples stock was around $10. Now it's around $80 a share. I should have invested.

[Yonzie]

It's split at least once in that time period, so that would be more like $165.

[Eugene]

Originally Posted by Yonzie It's split at least once in that time period, so that would be more like $165.

That number accounted for the split. At the time shares were trading in the high teens.

If you really want to see where Apple tanked, you have to go back to 1997 when it was trading for $13/share. Adjusted for two splits, that would have been $3.25 by today's metric.

[joveblue]

Thanks. That's a pretty impressive jump from 2.06% in 2003 to over 5% now! Fingers crossed it keeps heading that way