Daily Archives: June 1, 2008

Apple (AAPL): Mac OS Share Surges (HPQ)(DELL)(MSFT)

The time had to come when the share of the Apple (AAPL) Mac OS would begin to spike. There are too many Macs being sold and the growth rate of the Apple product is running better than improvements from most PC companies like Dell (DELL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

And, what was forecast has come true. According to Fortune "Apple’s share of the operating system market grew 5.69% in May to hit a record 7.80%, while Windows in all its flavors dropped half a basis point to 91.17%. That’s a record low for Microsoft (MSFT)."

At the current rate of growth, it is not hard to imagine that the Mac OS could have 10% of the market by the end of 2008.

Where is the limit? Because corporations are uneasy about the expenses of supporting two OSs, Mac sales into mid and large-sized companies are likely to stay extremely small. That leaves the consumer market. Companies like Dell are beginning to defend their turf by launching new and more attractive machines. The recent Dell quarterly report showed that its laptop sales were up 48%.

Will the Mac OS keep gaining market share? Yes. But, its growth likely to slow considerably during 2009.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: June 1, 2008 – 6:18 am in PC Companies, , , ,

Nations Work To Grab Ocean Floors, The New Race For Oil

The most valuable things on the floor of the ocean are probably the Titanic and several ship-wrecks with old Spanish coins. There seems to be little else of any worth down with the lanternfish and bristlemouths.

It has occurred to the brainy and the greedy that there is something under those doubloons and it is oil, maybe.

A number of sovereign nations have decided to claim ocean floor right from Antarctica to the Atlantic. Assuming that there could be undiscovered oil and gas fields in places which have never been surveyed, the rule now is "better safe than sorry."

The activity may not be so mad. Brazil recently found what may be the largest oil field discovered in forty years well out to sea off its coast. Ultra-modern drilling techniques will allow Brazil’s oil company to tap beds which are thousand of feet deep.

The effort to lock up rights is reaching a crescendo. According to the Telegraph, "The Law of the Sea allows the maritime powers to claim 200 miles of waters around their islands. They can win an extension to 350 miles if the geology of the seabed fits a set of complex technical conditions."

One of the hopes for driving down oil prices is that their are undiscovered pools under protected lands and deep sea beds. The Saudis may wish that they had used their vast wealth to buy up the oceans.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted on: June 1, 2008 – 4:59 am in Oil & Gas