Apple’s 18 Year Mac Odyssey

From its launch in 1984 until 1992, Apple’s Macintosh experienced growing market share, topping out at 12 percent. Until this year, 1993 was the last time that the Mac held 10 percent of the personal computer market.

In share terms, Apple’s glory years were from 1991 through 1995, though current events are clearly outshining anything that came before.

That’s part of the story told by Jeremy Reimer who wrote about PC operating system market share for Ars Technica back in 2005. Of course, as far as Apple’s concerned, the serious business of growing the platform started in 2005, the year Apple’s iPod vanquished Creative and the vaunted halo effected kicked in and hasn’t let up.

The Journey Is The Destination

Thereafter, the launch of the iPhone in 2007 and 2010′s iPad introduction underscored the Mac’s return to glory. Research firm Gartner pegged Apple branded computers’ share of the US market at 11.2 percent in the second quarter.

Equally telling is the fact that Windows PCs managed “only” an 88 percent share last quarter, the first time since the early ’90s that’s happened.

With Apple firing on all cylinders, it seems unlikely that the Mac’s ascent will be halted any time soon. Then again, perhaps 10 or 12 percent is the platform’s natural size…

What’s your take?