European OS market share: the rise of OSX

Most of you are probably aware of the huge market share gains made by Apple's OSX operating system in the US. Currently Apple practically owns the high end (above $1000) laptop market, and it's US market share is well above 10%. One problem for Apple was that these gains were limited to the US market and didn't extend to the international market. That seems to have changed in the last 6 months however.

The problems of Apple in Europe

The second largest market for Apple after the US is clearly Europe, led by Germany, France, Spain and the UK. These 4 countries alone probably represent a market of 200 million people. Up to this year however the market share of OSX stayed between 3 and 4 percent in Europe, mostly because of high price and low distribution. With the crash that the dollar experienced in the last 2 years Apple product have ended up being significantly more expensive in Europe than in the US. Here are a few examples: the cheapest Macbook available in Europe costs 949€, which translates to $1300. The cheapest Mac Mini goes for 599€, or around $850! Add to this the fact that until last year Macs were not widely available in Mediamarkt (the European equivalent of Best Buy) and you have poor conditions for Mac adoption.

The rise of European Macs

Things have changed the last year though: major electronic retailers are now selling Macs. The iPod craze allowed Apple to create a relationship with these distributors, so when consumer started to look for alternatives to the poorly accepted Windows Vista these shops started pushing Macs. The result is that following the latest study of the AT institute Apple managed to gain significant market share in Europe despite the high prices. Of the 4 countries analysed, only Spain still has an OSX population that falls under 5%. This is understandable because this was the poorest of the 4 countries covered by the study: in Spain Macs did start from a much lower market share because historically they were too expensive and could not gain any significant market share because of price.

More than 5% market share is significant!

Why is that 5% market share significant? Because it means that OSX can be considered a mass market in Europe, and not a US only phenomenon. This open the door for OSX to become a significant global player, and this at the expense of Microsoft Windows. In the last 6 months OSX market share gained close to 1%, Linux was either flat or progressed a little, and Windows fell. If we exclude Spain, Windows market share now hoovers around 92%, an all-time low. This indicates a significant change of attitude from European consumers that does not bide well for Microsoft.