General Revenue Mac or PC

DubGusset · Post by **DubGusset** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:12 pm

Does Live generate more revenue from mac or pc sales?

Agent47 · Post by **Agent47** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:18 pm

I dont know but I like your screen name...that track is in my latest mix.

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:29 pm

I would assume that since PCs account for about 98% of the computers worldwide, it might be a safe bet that's where the most money comes from?

icedsushi · Post by **icedsushi** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:38 pm

Actually that's not a safe bet because the percentage of musicians that use macs are quite alot more than the general public.

Even just excluding corporate/business computers sales will throw your percentage of macs up quite significantly. Remember, we're talking about Live here, it's a music program!

drush · Post by **drush** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:46 pm

the boxed version comes with both (doesn't it?) so there may be no way to tell

icedsushi · Post by **icedsushi** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:50 pm

I was thinking that too. But, I suppose they could get a percentage if they could filter that field in their system from the user registrations.

DubGusset · Post by **DubGusset** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:59 pm

Agent47 wrote:I dont know but I like your screen name...that track is in my latest mix.

Thanks, i love that track too. It's so simple yet so infectious - without being too 'catchy' in a Bon Jovi sort of way.

C

DubGusset · Post by **DubGusset** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:01 pm

I suppose the better question is, are live user's using it more on mac's or pc's.

icedsushi · Post by **icedsushi** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:07 pm

Yes, that's better, but we knew that's what you meant.

DubGusset · Post by **DubGusset** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:17 pm

icedsushi wrote:Yes, that's better, but we knew that's what you meant.

The reason i was wondering is that it, along with Cubase, is one of the only cross platform DAW [for lack of a better name] left. Sice the trend over the last number of years seems to abandon the cross platform hassle and focus on one OS only [development costs, support etc.]

It was something i thought abut before purchasing.

C

Gygaxian · Post by **Gygaxian** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 12:57 am

I use it on both my mac and pc if that helps the quest for info.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:12 am

It's a split 50% mac, 50% PC, same as Native Instruments.

I met up with Urs Heckman and Alex from Ableton a little over a year ago in a bar in berlin, and when they both confirmed this I was shocked.

With Live it makes sense, if you consider that some PC folks are still into Acid.... but there was nothing like Live until Soundtrack Pro on the mac.

With Native Instruments it actually sort of pissed me off at first, considering how long it took them to get proper AU versions of their software out, but WTF? In the end they did.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 1:33 am

56% of forum members polled HERE said Mac.

but yea, 50/50 is a pretty fair ballpark estimate.

lots of dynamics to consider too,
-Ableton Live was the first multi-track audio app written for OS X.
-Since Live never used Altivec, it may very well be the first for MacIntel as well.
-Live is highly popular amongst "laptop musicians", and so are i/Powerbooks.
-My sister's $700 Celeron-M Compaq laptop runs Live as good as a 2ghz iMac G5.

all that to consider, and its 50/50.
amazing!

icedsushi · Post by **icedsushi** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 3:19 pm

On that same note...

From what I've read on the forums for the past year, mac users comment or complain about the speed difference but I never see anyone ending the thread by saying they've switched or anything.

I think this makes a statement about MacOSX. People who have become used to OSX have mostly been staying with it for a reason even though there are much faster options at the moment. Like me, others are still buying powerbooks when it's time to upgrade knowing all along the price is almost double for less CPU power.

If they didn't feel so strongly about using OSX, I think many of them would have switched in a heartbeat.

tribalogical · Post by **tribalogical** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 8:39 pm

subterFUSE wrote:I would assume that since PCs account for about 98% of the computers worldwide, it might be a safe bet that's where the most money comes from?

This is a common misperception. Market Share as a measure of "current sales" says that Apple accounts for roughly 3% of all personal computers sold in any given quarter (and that number is climbing steadily -- up from just under 2% two years ago). So, yes, 97% of new computers sold today are PCs...

However, when you look at the total "installed base" (the sum total of all computers actively used today), Apple's numbers climb into double digits. I don't remember the estimated figure but its somewhere between 10 & 20%, worldwide.

Which says to me, that people who buy Macs hold on to them longer. For me there's truth to the notion. When I was using PCs, I replaced them every 18 ~ 24 months... with my Macs, my replacement cycle is more like 3 years.....

That's due to a combination of two things:
- Higher cost of entry (Macs do cost more)
- Longer life cycle (due to build-quality and the fact that the OS gets MORE not less efficient with each release. This allows older CPUs to remain in play much longer)

I upgraded to a G5 recently. But my 4-year-old G4 867Mhz machine still handles most of my mainstream apps and runs the latest OS just fine....

I can't say that about the PC I bought around the same time. It gags on most recent apps, and won't even run the latest Windows.... it definitely has a shorter life cycle. Actually, I did the math on that, and found that total cost of ownership is actually lower with my Macs (cost more to buy, but last longer, and ultimately costs less to own)....

Anyway, that's why Macs have a larger "installed base" compared to "market-share based on sales".

Then there's the fact that creative production (audio, video, graphic design) is dominated by Mac.... it's no surprise to me that the sales are fairly evenly split.

Keep in mind also that piracy is much more prevalent (on a per-user basis) in the PC world.... although plenty of it going on, it's much less so on the Mac side.

But this isn't about which is "better"..... just noting why it's no surprise the sales are about even.

Guarantee it isn't the case with M$ Office though!

peace,
tribalogical