Apple's new MacBooks now officially a flop as Windows PCs take high end market share

Nearly 10 years ago, in 2009, the NPD famously announced that Apple had more than 90% of the high-end PC market for PCs costing more than $1000.

A lot has happened since then, including the ascendancy of the iPhone as Apple’s profit centre, and more recently Microsoft’s Surface line, which inspired PC OEMs to do a lot better in terms of innovation and quality.

The result of Apple taking its eye of the ball has been the recent release at the end of October 2016 of the new Macbook Pro, with its biggest innovation being the touch bar and the removal of a large number of essential ports, to be replaced with USB-C slots, resulting in the device being famously slated as another example of Apple’s “dongle-hell” obsession.

Now Microsoft ‘s CFO Amy Hood has confirmed that this malaise has resulted in Windows OEMs making gains in Apple’s so far hallowed high margin terrain.

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood tells me that Windows OEM partners took share from Apple at the high-end of PC market last quarter.

— Dina Bass (@dinabass) January 26, 2017

that, according to Microsoft, pricy Windows machines are beating out Apple more often than previously

— Dina Bass (@dinabass) January 26, 2017

Microsoft’s financial results also confirmed as much, noting that Windows licensing revenue from OEMs for consumer devices grew 5% primarily due to a higher mix of premium devices.

Microsoft famously claimed that with the announcement of the Surface Studio, which caused many to claim Microsoft is more innovative than Apple, and Apple’s announcement of the disappointing MacBook Pro “more and more Mac users were switching to Surface.”

It seems Microsoft’s Surface line was not the only beneficiary, which is good news for OEMs struggling with the slow decline of the PC market.

Hopefully an increased share of the high-end market will also result in greater profits for Windows OEMs, which should lead to better engagement with Microsoft’s direction regarding PCs, laptops, VR headsets, IoT devices and even possible once again smartphones in the future. Either way the news is a celebration for Windows fans who prefer to have both style and function in their computers.