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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=815
No Niumbers: How Many Are Making the ''Switch''?
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
August 19th 2002
Have you made The Big Switch?
Apple''s ''Switch'' campaign has been the subject of much media ink and bytes, with
many weighing in on the efficacy of the advertising.
>From parodies of the ads to the punditry of John Dvorak (who predicted the ads would
>be dropped and forgotten by year''s end), there''s no doubt they''ve grabbed
>attention.
An article at Newsfactor looks at how the ''Switch'' campaign is shaping up to assess
whether it''s having the impact Apple''s been hoping for.
While the media avalanche, valued at $50 million (although dwarfed by the $100 million
''Think Different'' campaign) has only been in operation for eight weeks, it is
certainly unclear, as Newsfactor notes, whether the marketing, targeted at Windows/PC
users, is having an impact. However, as Apple''s VP for Worldwide Marketing, Phil
Schiller noted some weeks ago, the company does not expect to be able to gather
sufficient hard data on this until year''s end.
This was clearly the same case with the original iMac launch in 1998. Apple found by
late ''98 that around 15-20% of iMac buyers had ''switched'' from a Windows machine.
While Apple announced the statistics, they never made the data available for scrutiny.
The installed base remained by the far the largest segement of purchasers, although
first-time computer buyers - now an increasingly scarce commodity - made up a
substantial proportion of iMac sales.
Newsfactor reports that Apple when asked for data did not provide specific numbers,
but did state that it used figures from its apple.com/switch site to gather data. 60%
accessed the site using Windows, Steve Jobs said at MWNY, out of 1.7 million visitors.
Apple''s marketing or disenchanted Wintel users?
In the story, analyst Roger Kay at IDC argues that Microsoft may be as responsible for
shifting users to Mac, as much as Apple is responsible for encouraging them to switch.
Concerns about security, privacy issues and software rental have given Windows users a
reason to make the leap, particularly if they need to make new investments in software
in any case.
Kay also points to lower Mac prices generally, together with the reduced effort needed
to switch over to the Mac. OS X''s much better integration into Windows networks makes
the platform more agnostic than it was under OS 9.
Analysis: The flatness of the PC market will distort the impact of Switch. While Dell
gains market share largely at the expense of its Wintel competitors (helped, at least
initially, by the HP-Compaq merger), Apple is doing well to maintain and even increase
its market share marginally.
The bottom line always was that Apple could only sell and re-sell into its installed
base for only so long. The original iMac represented the high-tide mark of long-time
Mac owners buying the first genuinely interesting, powerful and price-competitive Mac
in years.
But this time, Apple also has the infrastructural elements in place to support Switch:
a Unix-baed, crash-proof (or almost) OS with strong Window inter-operability; a
nation-wide US Retail Store operation; and a well-priced, attractive and
highly-competitive product line.
Now we just have to hold our collective breaths and...wait for the economy to recover.
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=815
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