>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> You don't seriously think that Apple's share in the US for laptops has 
>>> raised from 5% to 23 % with machines more expensive than competitors' ? And 
>>> laptops are typically more expensive than equivalent desktops...

me:
>> only prices drive demand? not rising income or fads?

> Rising income in the US over the last 10 years ?

While the relative price between Apple laptops and non-Apple laptops
likely stayed roughly constant (while absolute prices were falling),
incomes likely rose during the period for which your statistics were
calculated. But I don't know what that period was. So it's hard to
say. And to what extent did Apple laptops replace other Apple products
(desktops, etc.) among the Apple segment of the market?

Of course, the widening income gaps -- both inside the US and
worldwide -- helped created the "Veblen" and "bandwagon" effects which
favored Apple products. The rich are more prone to fads. Not
completely: the popularity of the IPhone and Itunes has been more
general.

> As for fads, aren't they supposed to be short and not really last 10 years ?

a fad can feed on itself: by expanding the size of the market, it can
allow the exploitation of economies of scale in production, network
economies, etc., so that it becomes a "self-fulfilling prophecy." Also
fads often trickle down from the rich to the non-rich, as the latter
would like to be like the former. (that's the basis of the old GM
method of marketing: they'd make the Oldsmobile look a lot like last
year's Cadillac, etc.)
-- 
Jim Devine /  "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your
own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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