Re: Mac shipments up 12% [Was: focus!]

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

<quote who="Luis Villa">

> > It's the growth and potential that worries me. :-)
> 
> They've had better software and better hardware than Windows for a full
> five years, and have still not cracked 5% market share, so I don't see why
> you're scared now- they've had good quarters before, and they end up
> getting lost in the noise.

They haven't had better software/hardware *momentum* for five years.

Their platform is now at a point that Mac developers can be *extremely*
effective with vastly less work than Windows or Linux developers - which
means more software, more developers, more polish, a bigger ecosystem...

> This doesn't mean they suck, but I think it does speak strongly to Havoc's
> point- just being differentially better will not win big market share; we
> need to think about how to change the game completely if we're going to
> 'win' in any meaningful way- i.e., more than 5% market share.

Ah, but it speaks even more strongly to Havoc's point - Apple are changing
the game subtly, and investing that momentum (and in their case, earnings)
right back into their "differentially better" offering.

I'm not making these points because I'm interested in a pissing match about
numbers, I want to illuminate a point: Apple have spent the last five years
systematically setting up momentum, not *just* in their user experience and
game-changing new exploits, but in their platform too.

Havoc is right - we need to change the game. But I *don't* want to see us
disenfranchising our platform developers (again) to do so. We'll need them
all the more "when the revolution comes".

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2007: Sydney, Australia           http://lca2007.linux.org.au/
 
    "... Of course, compared with Holly Valance, who has beams of light
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