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Comment by qbasic_forever | Hacker News Reader

Mac never has grown beyond a small slice of the overall personal computer market. iPod, iPad, iPhone, etc. were absolutely revolutions that created and dominated entire markets, even today. However IMHO Apple still never got beyond a niche of the market for desktop/laptop computers. They build beautiful desktop/laptop hardware but the market seems happy with cheap devices that run Windows.

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I don’t know. Obviously windows machines outsell macs. But when I go to (programming) conferences, I always count the machines in the room. 40-60% are macs, the remainder a mix of windows and Linux.

When I visit any of my 3 kids on their respect campuses. I see the same. Some times even stronger.

I spent time in Boston 2 weeks ago and rode the tubes a lot. I saw a LOT of MacBooks. Way more than all other laptops combined.

Try to go to developer conferences on developing countries, or those unlucky ones not part of Gsomething, and those numbers will surely be others.

The Mac laptop has gone back and forth being the top laptop manufacturer in the world. It’s currently third but has been 2nd and first. It’s always been the most profitable.

I don’t even like apple but you are so incredibly wrong it’s laughable. This might have been true 20 years ago but dude. Apple is huge and it’s personal computing is huge too.

Apple's US market share is ~15%. That excludes Chromebooks. If you include them, it's a good bit lower.

Maybe they've been the most profitable laptop, but they definitely have not or ever been the number one seller by volume.

I would venture to say that it was iPod + iTunes that brought Apple back, and then iPhone was just the icing at exactly the right time (Nokia was also prototyping "internet tablets", albeit with resistive touch screens).

They did make the most of it, and they are definitely the show-off market leader (when you want to show off your laptop, that's what you get ;).

My company recently got me a MacBook Pro 14, and while it's fast, I don't enjoy using it for the same reasons I hated my old XPS13: I hate the keyboard and glossiness of the screen (and sharp edges too). I am a Thinkpad X1 guy, those are machines I happily go back to.

You're not wrong but there is a cachet with Macs that is undeniable. It's not unusual for the executives or creatives to use Macs in an otherwise fully Windows based organization.

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