03.15.07

Mac Attack

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:34 pm by Ethan

There was a Java architectural meeting yesterday, with seven of the best and brightest minds at Sun present. Someone apparently screwed up, because I received an invitation as well, making for an even eight people there. Unsurprisingly, eight laptop computers attended as well.

A few years ago it would have been unusual to see even a single Mac in a such a group. There is no question that Macs are becoming increasingly common among geeks nowadays, but I hadn’t appreciated quite how much until the meeting yesterday.

Of eight laptops in the room, six of them were Macs. That’s incredible, but how significant is it, especially considering that Sun is understandably not a huge Microsoft fan? Honestly, I have no idea. But I have to believe that finding Macs in the hands of 75% of a group of decision-makers at a technology company is at least somewhat significant.

Folks will of course say that Apple’s overall market share is still hovering around a mere 6%, and that’s certainly true. But I’m compelled to point out that not all market share is equal — Apple isn’t even attempting to compete in the super-cheap razor-thin-margin arena. I suspect that their share among high-end computers is substantially higher, as well as in the important “influential geek” market, and influential geeks can rapidly drive adoption among friends, coworkers, and family members.

At the end of the day this is just another useless anecdotal data point with no statistical significance. But I found it interesting nonetheless.

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