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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1459
Is the 'Switch' Campaign Falling on Deaf Ears?
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
January 1st 2003
"Exclusivity" may be the limiting factor.
Apple's 'Switch' ads have certainly created mindshare - but have they increased
Apple's sales?
That's the question the San Jose Business Journal asks in its assessment of the
Switch campaign, which was designed to get Windows users - primarily - to move to Mac.
The ad campaign commenced early June and it's "too early to tell" what the impact is,
according to an Apple spokesperson quoted in the Mercury.
However, as CFO Fred Anderson noted in his Q4 conference call, 40% of buyers visiting
Apple's Retail Stores are not Mac owners.
A MetaFacts survey cited in the article reports that Windows buyers scarely gave Apple
a mention when asked which computer brand they were considering for their next
purchase.
MetaFacts argues that the Mac market is "exclusive" and that it is difficult to
increase the market share of 'exclusive' brands. However, the research - interestingly
- shows that Apple's 5% market share rises to 6.0-6.3% when considered in the context
of homes with broadband access and those with household incomes in excess of $50,000.
Analysis: IGM suggested earlier in 2002 that six months might be sufficient time to
assess the medium-term impact of Switch. Without hard data from Apple, this isn't
easy. However, Apple has weathered an extremely poor PC market very well - far better
than IBM's PC division, or Gateway. And Compaq is effectively no longer.
Apple have planned to stretch switch over 18 months - possibly more. But how very
wrong John Dvorak has proven to be; he predicted that Switch would be quietly buried
and forgotten within 6 months. That's the dangerous thing about predictions - they
always come back to bite you.
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