Apple was claiming that as many as 25 million copies of Mac OS X were sold.  So let's go with 

that number. There are lots more that have not  switched  to Mac OS X, either because their 

systems are older (pre G3) or because they  can't , due to application software they  have to 

have  that hasn't transmogrified into Mac OS X mode yet.  

If we do as Apple does and add an average of 3 people to the Mac OS X based 25 million, we 

still end up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 million users that use Macs, right?  

Retiring and Recycling 

Do we remove 20% of the systems to either the recycling center or to retirement?  We created a 

Running Total Retired column, knowing full well it isn't any where near being accurate (unless 

Apple reveals to us a count of those machines that have been destroyed [or buried, like they did 

with the Lisas]). How many iMacs have you seen tossed into landfills? Many are repurposed, 

resold and even given away even now by the likes of Sun Remarketing 

(

http://www.sunrem.com/

), Recycled Goods (

http://www.recycledgoods.com/computers.htm

) 

educational institutions, government entities and others like 

http://w3.trib.com/~dwood/recyclemacs.html

, 

http://www.lanecrrc.org/about/macrenewal.php

 or 

http://www.gcmac.org/html/chs2000.html

.  

Apple has had their own recycling program as well (keeping machines out of landfills); 

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/nationalservices/us.html

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/

The recycling reports are in tonnage (

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/data.html

)  

instead of machines and thoughtfully include non Mac equipment, 

http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/success.html

. There are also a lot of non CPU 

items like monitors, printers, etc. in that mix. 

Getting a recycled/retired CPU number is next to 

impossible, because Apple isn't the only one 

doing recycling of all computer equipment and 

peripherals. Remember, these are not the units 

that go back out into public sale. They get 

reduced back to metal, plastic and glass and go 

through remanufacturing processes in an effort to 

keep the environment  green . 

So for giggles, lop off another 6 million Macs and 

we are at around 24 million active, running, in 

use G3, G4 and G5 Macs. That is only a few 

million more than we have  retired  in the table. 

Is 20% attrition of total Macs ever made, too low 

a number? (That is my own SWAG [Scientific 

Wild A**ed Guess]). That is why we have a 

Running Total In Use column. Whack off the 48 

million at the top of that column and that still 

  MPN, LLC 2005 macCompanion 

Page 8 

August 2005, Volume 3 Issue 8