why is apple not the dominant provider of personal computer?

Question

why is it not the dominant provider of personal computer?

Answer 1

Simple:

1) They love non-standard things. Everything must be compatible with Apple... not Apple should be compatible with the rest of the world.
2) They are not cheap.
3) You as a user have seen more Windows on machines than Mac OS. So, If you started learning with Windows at school, home or work, would you spend the time to learn a new operating system that does almost everything different from the one you have always seen?

Answer 2

Because the lowest Apple product is 4 times the price of a basic PC (which is usually more powerful then even the fastest mac), and most of the computer industry is build for the PC infrastructure. Switching to Apple is impossible for at least a decade.

Answer 3

I think because their machines were all proprietary; there was no market competition to lower the costs to consumers. Whereas on the PC side, just about anyone could build a computer and put Windows on it, so with all the competition, personal computers were affordable for more people. There was also a greater variety of software available for PCs, which also swayed consumers.

Answer 4

Advantages of PC:
Lower cost harware
Non proprietary
PC's are easier to customize

Remember that PC's are really an IBM product. Early on IBM was the standard for computers long before there was ever an Apple or a Microsoft.

As a result industry most likely had dealt with IBM and had larger computers in service prior to the 80's PC boom. So when IBM came out with the PC (Personal Computer) it also attracted users in bussiness and industrial control. IBM enjoyed a strong reputation in industry so many industrial control and automation systems would become IBM/PC based as a result.

It is the integration of industrial control using DOS based PC's on the factory floor and the front office where PC's really started to take hold. It would make no sense to use an incompatable system such as an Apple if your factory production was being controlled by IBM/PC (DOS) based machines. By bringing PC's into the industrial office information from the factory floor (Embedded DOS based control systems) could be easily utilized in the front office.
Also IBM would again have a toe hold in that IBM PC were already in the factory on production equipment and mainframe systems (Competing with Digital) it could easily provide PC's for the front office

Many potential home computer users would find themselves working with DOS based PC's at work. It would make sense for these users to buy a IBM/PC as they would most likely be familiar with one from work or have a need to process information from work at home.

So while Apple was busy setting up schools with Apples., IBM was setting up PC's in industry and with these machines Microsoft was not far behind.

Even though schools in the mid 80's were primarily Apple based students entering the work force would soon find a large number of IBM machines in the industrial work place.

This is not to say that IBM was in every bussiness, Apple has aways had an edge in graphics so you will find that Apple had market share in graphics & data(text) oriented bussiness such as publishing.

Apple also had a strong program to supply (give away )computers to schools making Apple computers nearly exclusively used in the class room.

However as students educated and familar with Apples graduated and entered the workforce, many would find themselve infront of an unfamilar PC. Many of these individuals would need additional training.

At this time I believe that school systems started to see the disparity between the exclusive Apple based training in school and real world IBM PC usage. In an effort to rectify this PC's were also brought into class rooms.

This may have also influenced household computer purchases as a single machine could do both school work and bussiness work. Lower purchase cost of a PC vs Apple and a large PC software selection probably combined with the industrial usage to erode Apples market share.

Answer 5

because apple doesn't make pcs, they make macs. ok, aside from that it's because back in the 80s or so windows was a cheaper alternative to mac os so lots of people used it instead. today the oposite is true, but people who learned how to do something on a pc don't want to learn it again on a mac, even if it's better, faster, and cheaper.

Answer 6

1. it's more expensive than computer for windows
2. most programs available (especially games) works in windows and not in apple

Answer 7

Because, Apples are often more expensive and people associate a stigma with anything non-windows

Answer 8

or is it because M$ monopolized the OS market,
or maybe, they (M$) intentionally didn't not make an apple version of the windows so as to force apple users to switch to their platform(intel/windows) ?... :p