How strong are apple as a company?

Chazam

Chazam

Apple Virgin
I'm curious as to how Apple are doing? Are they making profit? Are they growing and expanding? How are apples sales?
I was wondering as being new to the whole mac thing i was wondering if it was possible for apple to ever give up and call it a day due to microsoft and PC's?
How much market share do they have and is it growing?
I used to be an Amiga fan in the 90's and it was a shame to see Commodore go down! the same with SEGA, i liked the Saturn which seemed to die and nearly take SEGA with them.....
I seem to be a bit of a bad omen as everything i buy, the company associated with it seems to go wrong! :confused:
 
I've been using Apple products for more than 15 years now, and honestly... Apple is doing just fine right now.

Granted it isn't where it was in 1999, but what tech company is? Apple weathered the tech recession far better than most companies.

On the other hand, Apple is no where near how it was during the dark times (1995-1997) where they had seven consecutive losing quarters in a row (with one of the last ones being a loss of over $700 million). If Apple could survive that, then I see nothing in the near future (five years out at least) that even has a chance of taking it down.

As for market share, it is nice to see how many people are buying Macs, but I haven't been counted in market share since late 2000. The average Mac stays in use three times longer than the average PC. At this rate, most PC users will have been counted 3 times in market share numbers before I'll be counted again (assuming I buy my next Mac in late 2004 or early 2005). On the other hand, I have seen estimates that put Macs (all Macs) at around 10% of the total computers in use today. Which is understandable as most PCs become landfill after 5-7 years while Macs as old as 12 years are still functioning members of computer society (I still use a 1992 Quadra 950 for many tasks including CD burning).

I can understand your worries though. There have always been people predicting the end of Apple. Odd that people won't give up on it. And even more odd when you consider the state of Apple today. During the dark times it was at least feasible that Apple might go down (or be bought up), but today it is a little far fetched.

Hope that put everything in perspective.
 
There was an interesting article in the latest Wired about Microsoft ... so basically, Gates supported Apple (and a lot of other companies) - so that it would not get the monopoly (would cost it a lot in court). So it is even the interest of our friend mr Gates that Apple will do fine. ;)
 
Apple is one of the few IT companies to consistently post a profit in the wake of the dot-com crash. Apple has shown consistent growth over the last five years in terms of profitablity and corporate worth. Apple has made some - but not much - inroads in terms of market share, but then Apple has always been a niche player, so 'market share' is not the most important factor to consider. Apple has also grabbed about a 30-40% share of the Mp3/Digital media player market, and has the only profitable online music service yet created. The iTunes music store is generating a great deal of revenue for Apple.
 
yep i was going to say exactly that. Apple won't go down untill/unless/if Microsoft gets another big corporate contender (in other words, something other than linux. or say if Sun Microsystems became insanely big and made a lot of Consumer PCs then apple might have to worry)
 
So what you're all saying is that Microsoft need to support apple so that Ms can say in court that it isn't trying to force a monopoly over the computing world?
 
Basically, Microsoft wants to support the Mac OS and not Sun or Linux because the Mac OS doesn't run on the Wintel hardware, whereas Linux does, and some versions of the Sun OS (Solaris and the new JDE). And with Linux getting easier to install on this hardware, obviously Winders doesn't want to support these kind of companies. So, based on the incompatibility of Hardware and Software (just in terms of running the OSs), this is a good reason to support Apple.
Plus, with 4 billion in the bank, Apple could stop doing business for a year or two, and still be in a decent position. So, don't worry about Apple dissappearing. They'll be around for a long time yet to come.
 
A little known fact is that as much 10% of Microsoft's revenue comes from the Macintosh Business Unit, which is responsible for Microsoft Office for Mac, Virtual PC and other MS products on the Mac platform. (last stats I had were prior to release of X-Box and MS's takeover of Connectix however, so the stats may have changed).
 
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