Apple to ship 10 million Macs in 2006?
Apple Computer is expected to ship a total of 10 million desktops and notebooks in 2006, according to a report from overseas.
Foxconn — otherwise known as Hon Hai — manufactures Apple's Mac mini computers, while Quanta has been taking orders for the PowerBook product line and Asustek the iBook line, according to a report by DigiTimes.
The Economic Daily News report further noted that Quanta has also won the bid to manufacture Appleâs MacBook Pro, which supports a 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor, and began shipping last week.
The reliability of this report is unknown.
Apple in the 2005 calendar year sold approximately 4.75 million Mac systems, according to calculations performed by AppleInsider. Sales of 10 million Macs in 2006 would represent over a 100 percent increase in sales year-over-year.
42 Comments
I'd like to see 10m Macs sold this year, as I'm sure Apple would too, but I reckon the rise won't be as astronomical as that. Yes, the transition is going well and the backlog of upgrade starved user demand is waiting in anticipation for the full range ... but 2006 is short bearing in mind the Intel PowerMac will only have been on sale a few months at best. These models are all going to be a roaring success, but 2006 is a tight timeframe seeing as they're hardly all shipping as we speak.
However I have big expectations of Macs moving into the mainstream in the next few years: provided Vista works on them so easily that Joe Average can run it (a 3rd party solution maybe with dual boot preinstallation before purchase could be a real business opportunity there).
Vista is going to push a lot of the Windows userbase into hardware upgrades anyway and how Leopard and the new Macs play into this active market should be quite entertaining.
PS: make a tablet Mac now!!!
10 million Macs would be the result of many consumers and businesses making the Switch.
I'd love to see 10 million Macs sold in 2006, not sure if it will happen but I expect the numbers to surpass the number of units sold in 2005.
The Economic Daily News report further noted that Quanta has also won the bid to manufacture Apple?s MacBook Pro, which supports a 2GHz Intel Core Duo processor, and began shipping last week.
they must be kidding. THEY HAVEN'T BEGAN SHIPPING LAST WEEK!
It won't happen. Or, if it does, it'll be more because people are swallowing up the G5 machines then the intel ones.
The intel move will spur some sales for those who need the end-all/be-all, plus some who've been waiting for them to finally upgrade. But there's a huge population of mac users who will:[list=a][*]Buy G5s because they need classic compatibility[*]Buy G5s because their software/drivers/etc won't run in Rosetta[*]Wait for the rev 1 bugs to be worked out[*]Wait for universal versions of their pro apps[*]Wait for the model of computer and price range that they want[/list=a]
I can see a bump in purchases, if you believe that there's a trend going on, but doubling sales? Not going to happen.
I could see it happening if Apple laptops could dual boot Windows as well. I just bought a new PC laptop that would've been an Apple laptop if the MBP could run Windows natively.
I wish I didn't need to buy a PC, but SQL Server & Visual Studio only runs on Windows.