Letter From the CEO 

Mac Numbers? 

by Robert Pritchett

There has always been a point of debate, whether lying with statistics using  market share  or 

guesstimating, exactly how many Macintosh computers are still in use today. Just be aware that 

statistics are tools for misleading marketing and should be viewed with a critical eye: 

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/stat3.html

. And yes, I read How to Lie with Statistics a few 

years ago, so I tend to be a bit jaundiced when it comes to percentages. Numbers and earnings 

figures I can deal with. For an example of percentage silliness, if I sold one item last month and 

sold one more of the same product this month, I had a 100% increase in sales over a one month 

period. Ergo, business is booming if I say I had a 100% increase in sales. Did I make any money 

off the transaction and is business prospering? I didn't give you enough data. You don't know 

my overhead, bill of materials, what I sold the item for, etc. Get the picture? 

Contrast the  debate  with the latest financials from Apple and this issue almost becomes a mute 

point doesn't it? The iPod pheno is Apple's current cash cow, even though they sold even more 

Macs this past quarter. Their combined earnings are higher than ever in any earlier quarter in 

Apple history! 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/mc/20050713/tc_mc/applereports320millionprofit

Gene Steinberg finessed the financials: 

http://www.macnightowl.com/news/2005/07/week3.htm#again

And don't pay too much attention to the Financial Analysts (FAs).  Apple will never be  good 

enough  for them and when they are wrong, they never say so either. Did you ever read a 

contraction of their misguided remarks?  Who pays them to be so stubbornly wrong all the time?  

Jonny Evans guestimates that 400,000 non Mac platform users moved to Macs since January 

2005: 

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=12117

Apple is so much more than just  computers  or  software . They are not a  one trick pony  by 

any stretch of the imagination, so why are the FAs trying to pigeonhole them?  

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/financial_times_on_apple_computers_res

ults_only_matter_of_time_before_fall

What is really driving the Apple Doomsayers nuts is that the 3

rd

 Quarter of any given year is 

usually a  slow period  for the High Tech Industry. And Apple still beat sales predictions and 

other computer manufacturers in nearly 3 to 1sales.  

  MPN, LLC 2005 macCompanion 

Page 5 

August 2005, Volume 3 Issue 8