Apple is now growing in acceptance within the broadcast business, states an article in “MacWorld” magazine. However, last week, Apple announced that it will not attend NAB2008.
“Apple is participating in fewer trade shows every year, because often there are better ways for us to reach our customers,” Apple spokesman Anuj Nayar told “MacWorld.” “The increasing popularity of Apple’s retail stores and Apple.com Web site enable us to directly reach more than 100 million customers around the world in innovative new ways.”
Indeed, thanks to the company’s move to the Intel platform, it continues to gain greater interest from broadcasters and other professionals, said Rob Hoffman, senior product manager for Autodesk, maker of the 3-D animation software program Maya.
According to the figures published in “MacWorld,” Apple’s Mac business has enjoyed increasing popularity over the past year and figures from IDC show that Apple’s Mac shipments in the United States grew 30.9 percent to 1.06 million during the fourth quarter of 2007.
That’s a 6.1 percent market share, behind Acer, Dell and HP. But these figures don’t necessarily reflect growth in the broadcast market. Apple, however, has identified growth in the pro segment.
Looking to the future, Hoffman said: “Adoption has moved from a very design-centric market to broadcast, and it won’t be long before you see film and games companies, and other nontraditional markets, utilizing Mac hardware. It’s not a matter of if, but when.”