Horace Dediu:
If this estimate is considered then the operating profits from PC operations imply that Apple generates more profit than all the top 5 PC vendors combined.
Assuming further that “other” vendors have the same profitability ratio as the top 5 combined yields a figure of 45% “profit capture of PC market” for Apple. This is not as good as its performance in the phone market, where Apple has about 72%, but it’s not bad.
That’s pretty incredible. But the real key, as Dediu notes, is that volume used to make up for the low margins for the other PC makers. Of course now that volumes are falling…
It seems that Apple is the only company that successfully achieved a cruising altitude when it comes to the personal computer business. The rest are going to fall out of the sky.
blackswaneuroparedux