What can Apple fans expect in 2006 from the company they so love? Les Posen, a good pal of ours and a fellow Mac addict thinks that as broadband becomes even more pervasive, people will struggle even more to keep their windows PCs battle-ready. The amount of nefarious stuff on the Internet is only going to increase, many have predicted. This will trigger off a new wave of switchers to the OS-X platform.
It’s for this reason amongst others that 2006 will be the year of the Switcher for Apple and Microsoft. Apple’s previous Switcher campaign was clever and got lots of eyeballs, even to the point of being parodied, but I doubt it actually generated much switching.
I agree with Les, because in last one week, I have helped three friends buy a Mac, and four are still deciding. These are non-techies, who popped the question: should I get a mac? I think Paul K, will be a switcher in the near future. Les thinks that the switch to Intel chips will be rocky for Apple, but in the end will be worth it for the company. I would still wait for the second generation of Intel-powered iBooks to show up before plonking down my money.
Here are my predictions for Apple in 2006…
1. Apple will finally take its market share to over 5%. (I am finishing up my follow-up post on increasing support for OS-X from software vendors!)
2. iPhone, the real thing comes to market sometime in September 2006 time frame.
3. Mac Mini finally becomes Apple’s CE platform for the living room.
4. Apple releases iPod-inspired devices for the home.
5. Apple will get closer to Cingular in terms of wireless music.
Om,
It would be worth waiting for # 2 and #4 happening in 2006 ! This would (much to the wrath of opposers of my ideas) confirm a step towards LifeStyle 2.0 (http://www.emergintex.com/blog/?p=107)
As far as Switching goes: I’m a switcher, and whilst it wasn’t *because* of Ellen Feiss, she and Jamie made the idea acceptable to me. Until then, I never really considered a Mac.
So maybe those guys did their job after all
Hi Om, Paul K is in fact switching. His blog mentions that he will try out a Mac this week. Wow, that was quick.
OM –
I am so fed up with the junk that permeates my home computer and is shown to my kids that I am thinking of making the switch at home as well. By the way, I wrote a related post on Saturday looking at Apple in 2006 from a “portal perspective.” Posted on my blog and on the internetstockblog at http://internetstockblog.com/article/5303
Huge number of users switching to MAC OS? Dream on. Not that I have anything against the MAC OS, but the realistic change that has happened so far is a half-point percentage “Switch” over the past couple of years(give or take). So it would be very premature to claim 2006 as the year of the switch, seeing as the new version of Windows might be out as well in 2006. But maybe someone can throw some hard numbers to back up that claim later. Until then, Windows will dominate the PC market (for better or worse).
1. Not with China building so many PC’s
2. iPhone, uPhone we all have a phone.
3. Show me the Video card.
4. I need a toaster that plays music…
5. Cingular is changing its name.
Carrying 3000 songs why would I need to an expensive download of a new song?