In a story last week I mentioned that Apple had 20-25 million users worldwide. However, Tracy Valleau, CEO of Digital Light Studios thinks that figure may be a lot higher.
“Apple’s figures were 25 million units about five years ago, with 68 million ‘users’ [taking into consideration that many folks share a machine],” Valleau said. “I looked at Apple’s S10 Quarterly SEC filings, and added up, as best as possible, the number of Power Macs and later Macs sold. Turns out it’s approximately 35 million. (I have no idea what the number of 68K Macs still in use is.)”
If you’d like to do the math yourself, go online to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and do an Edgar search on Apple Computer. You’ll find actual units sold for the past five or so years. Of course, you’ll need to do some extrapolation with this data.
Of course, it’s a pretty safe bet that Wintel users replace their machines more often than Mac users. Finally, if the industry estimate of 270 million PCs were correct, that would make the Mac installed base closer to 8 percent than 6 percent.
“Don’t you suppose that Mercedes would love to have 8 percent of the car market?” Valleau said.