The Mac Plus helped put some polish back on the Apple, and 1986 unit sales almost matched 1984 sales – but the Mac market share was only 4.2% and well behind the C-64, DOS PCs, and Apple II line. Sales in 1985 were terrible with no new Macintosh models.

Reimer’s data shows that the Macintosh held 6% of the PC market when it was introduced in 1984, placing it behind the C-64, DOS computers, and Apple II series. The combined weight of the DOS market took the #1 spot from Commodore in 1985. IBM and the growing number of “IBM clones” moved to second place in 1983 with one-quarter of the PC market. It was the first popular 16-bit computer and only accounted for 5% of personal computer sales its first year out. IBM changed the industry when it released the IBM PC in 1981. In 1983, Commodore commanded 40% of the PC market by offering the first truly affordable color computer. In 1981, Atari was the dominant player in the home computer market, a position it ceded to the Commodore 64 in 1983.Īh, the Commodore 64 – 2 million units sold in 1983, and 2.5 million in each of the following three years. (When combined with the Mac, Apple had over 20% of the market that year.) In 1984, the Apple II had 15% of the market, Apple’s best showing ever. Apple IIs peaked in 1984 at 1,000,000 units, then slowly gave way to the Mac. The Apple II series finally overtook the TRS-80 in 1983, the year Radio Shack sales dropped by one-third.

Who had all the sales? Radio Shack with its TRS-80 computers. Apple didn’t take 10% of the PC market until 1980 – and it fell below that mark again in 1982. In 1978, Apple sold 7,600 computers, but in an industry that sold 258,000. Of 150,000 PCs (personal computers, not IBM compatibles) sold in 1977, only 600 were Apples.

8 Bitsĭespite Apple’s claims to have “ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II,” Reimer’s numbers tell a different story. The numbers tell some very interesting stories. This and other statistics can be culled from Jeremy Reimer’s Personal Computer Market Share: 1975-2002, a very impressive piece of information gathering. Although the Apple II once accounted for nearly one-sixth of the market, the Mac has never had more than a 12% market share. Despite the myths, Apple has never been a dominant player in the personal computer industry.

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