Gregg Thurman on Apple's laptops win both market and revenue share - '”HP sells lots of cheap laptops, it’s the US bargain brand.” I think of HP and DELL as enterprise products. They are purchased with support packages for both hardware and software. IBM has been offering Apple computers packaged with custom software developed specifically for Apple hardware. IBM has grown an impressive library of Apple specific software for the enterprise. Last I read (over a year ago) IBM had over 100 titles. With the NEO and 17e I can see IBM being more successful. When IBM took on the Apple product they changed out all their Wintel machines. At the end of their first year IBM found that productivity had increased and calls for tech support had declined substantially. I forget the percentage but greater than 50% rings a bell. From units market share I’d venture that DELL is in danger of slipping further and out of the Top 5. Maybe Mr. Dell should sell it to a ACER, ASUS or Microsoft. Microsoft has a history of buying failing manufacturers (Nokia).'
on Apple's laptops win both market and revenue share - 'The data says Neo now addresses the remaining 57% (subtracting Alienware, MSFT, etc.). HP, with an ASP, faces a memory cost brick wall.'
on Architecture wars: Intel sells the most CPUs, Apple sells the best - 'If you had shown me the left-hand chart 10 years ago, I would have thought you were crazy. I think component costs will continue to impact the personal computer marketplace, with the traditional ‘open systems integrator’ vendors being squeezed badly. The premise for open system is in part price competition. When the price pressure lessens, the integration costs (each component maker needing an independent profit) rises. I’m sure that will rebalance in a couple years, for those who can survive…'
on Microsoft, start your engines - 'Here’s a breakdown of Microsoft’s revenue for its most recent fiscal year ended 06/30/2025. Information is taken for the Form 10-K Revenue $281.724 billion Revenue by segment Productivity and Business Processes $120.810 billion Intelligent Cloud 106.265 billion More Personal Computing* 54.649 billion *More Personal Computing includes Windows and devices revenue, Xbox and Xbox-related revenue, and search and news advertising revenue. Last fiscal year over 80% of Microsoft’s revenue was sourced from the Productivity and Business Processes & Intelligent Cloud segments. The More Personal Computing segment is a crowded place. Proverbially speaking, I don’t think the release of the MacBook Neo will cost the folks at Microsoft much sleep.'
on Microsoft, start your engines - '“I use Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity products throughout my work day.” I am fortunate that I use Apple’s productivity products throughout my day including Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Pixelmator. They are just so enjoyable to use and I am yet to see in real world/working alongside Microsoft/Adobe users where those products offer an advantage over Apple’s. Keynote in particular consistently delivers a better presentation and Pages’ output is as good as In-Design (in real world scenarios). There are things you can do in Numbers and excel that you can’t do in there other, but Numbers is fine for 99.9% of users. But agree, the near seamless/frictionless functionality of Microsoft’s productivity suite on the Mac has been a benefit to adoption/tolerance of Mac in the workplace.'
on Microsoft, start your engines - 'I do not believe for one second that Microsoft is going to cede the PC market to Apple, or IT departments the corporate market, if for no other reason than that AI has to run on something. Ironically in the case of IT departments, of course, they’re already pretty much doomed by AI…. The. problem for Microsoft is that just doing AI isn’t going to be enough if you can’t get a decent ROI from it. In addition, AI that isn’t safe is going to become a huge issue. In fact, it’s turning out to be a big problem for computing in general, with AI already showing that it is very adept at getting around computer security issues. Apple, to its credit, has been focused like a laser on personal data protection. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they haven’t been working on a solution to the AI security problem for years, which puts them years in front of their competitors, including Microsoft.'
on Saturday Apple video: Why Steve Jobs bought Pixar (1996) - 'I always thought that what he had was really good sense – that SHOULD have been common – AND the intellectual integrity to not be swayed from it by others. The sense that what I was trying to see – he saw.'
on Microsoft, start your engines - 'And being in a similar position at the last company I worked at, knowing Macs where the IT department knew Wintel but had no clue about Macs, I also became the informal IT support for others with Macs. The abiity for one guy to quickly keep a bevy of computers working right (while the Windows crowd were always having problems) , and my constant proselytizing, eventually got the notice of upper management. It became much easier to get Macs then. IT was not happy 😉'
on Apple after 50 - 'I feel or relate to another observation about the 1998 Apple vs the 1976 Apple: When I first joined my company in 2000, I was a fresh out of school materials science engineer with a great interest in what we could do with materials. Makes sense, right? So I entered into semiconductor manufacturing because I had an interest in Process, Structure, Property relationships (passed down to me from my doctor mother and her doctor father – academic language). Very theoretical, somewhat applicable. But suddenly I was a manufacturing engineer. Very different. In this case, process *control* became the governing language. As did “Quality” (process control, documentation, and all that seemingly inglorious stuff). Very applicable, somewhat theoretical. I was laid off in 2009, did a stint somewhere else, and returned in 2013. I am not really trying to compare myself to Steve Jobs, but I’d like to suggest that, after experience with and separation from an organization … You come back different. So, too, with both Steve Jobs and with Apple. This kind of rejuvenation helps when you turn 50 years old (or 55 in my case).'
on Saturday Apple video: Why Steve Jobs bought Pixar (1996) - 'I’ve never heard that particular explanation for the phrase: “The stick and the carrot.” Steve Jobs was quite the innovator as both a marketing guy and manager. Excellent clip.'
on Microsoft, start your engines - 'Isn’t this what ‘Windows on Arm’ is? A different OS that looks like Windows on Intel but runs only on ARM cpus and won’t run the legacy WinTel applications?'
on Saturday Apple video: Why Steve Jobs bought Pixar (1996) - 'Without Pixar, there would most likely be no Apple 2.0 for Steve Jobs, in my opinion. Catmull helped turn Jobs from a forceful genius into a stronger partner. The Pixar environment that Jobs entered modeled truth-telling and collaboration, which gave Jobs a place where listening, restraint, and respect for other people’s expertise produced better results.'
