Apple Market Share: Just Right!

Depending on who you believe, the latest numbers from Gartner and IDC have Apple’s market share somewhere around 8%. While Gartner says Apple’s slice of the personal computing pie is 8.7% with moderate growth, IDC has them at 7.6% after a slight decline. Either way, I’m perfectly pleased with Apple’s position. I think Cupertino has found a real “sweet spot” as far as Mac fans are concerned. They seem to be content with their business plan of allowing OS X to run on Apple computers only while maintaining the highest standards for their hardware. If Dell and HP are Ford and Chevy, Apple is Acura or BMW. Not outrageously so, but a definite notch above in design and build quality. Who can argue with their strategy, Apple’s numbers speak for themselves. It’s unrealistic to think BMW could outsell Ford in the US. Likewise, Apple will never put up Dell or HP unit numbers because attempting to do so would mean lowering their standards to get into low-end markets or making other compromises to accommodate businesses.
Apple has enough market share to make them a solid, profitable company, but not enough to entice the “black hats” to begin paying serious attention to the platform. We OS X users are spoiled by no need for anti-virus and other security software clogging up our computers. We know there are vulnerabilities to be exploited. That gets proven over and over again by various security firms and “white hat” hacking competitions. Fortunately, Windows has been the low-hanging fruit for the real nasties to pick. It comes down to business basics that any undergrad could figure out. With less than 10% market share, the cost/benefit ratio for constructing and distributing a useful and prolific OS X exploit is simply too high. How do I know this? Because it hasn’t happened yet. Believe me, the creeps that create bot nets don’t avoid OS X out of favoritism or loyalty. Windows is just a fatter target.
I, for one, would like to enjoy flying under the bad guys’ radar for as long as possible. I also want Apple to thrive and grow for all the obvious reasons. (In the interest of full disclosure: I own Apple stock.) I just don’t want them to grow too fast or get too big, especially with Mr. Jobs’ future contribution in question.
I’m not sure where the market share tipping point is that would motivate the bad guys to train their sights on us, I’m just glad we’re not there yet. Most PC users have never known the pleasure of using an unencumbered OS. I hope it stays that way.
But what the hell do I know?