Why do software companies support the Mac?
Why do software companies support the Mac? Don’t get me wrong, I love that there are so many options available for OS X. However, OS X users are a small percentage of the overall market (according to Wikipedia, Mac users are a mere 6% of the market). How do you find out why software makers support the Mac? Just ask them.
I asked Adobe (just before they released CS3) why it supports Mac OS X. I received a response from Russell Brady, PR Director of Adobe. According to Mr. Brady, Adobe’s sales in its last financial year (2006) “were 77% Windows and 23% Mac. In some markets, such as the creative professional space, the Macintosh percentage is even higher. The Macintosh market is huge for Adobe and, by most estimates, we’re the largest supplier of Mac software on the planet.”
I was rather surprised by Adobe’s quick response, so I came up with other questions. I asked if Adobe thought Adobe software ran better on Mac OS X. I also asked if it had considered the scenario that if Adobe ceased Mac support, Adobe could be responsible for many Mac users abandoning the platform in favor of Windows.
Mr. Brady responded, “I guess I’m shocked at the question. There is no way Adobe is not going to support Mac OS X with its flagship applications. We develop on Mac OS X because that’s what our customers want. We work closely with Apple to make sure our software runs great on their platform – and Apple have been extremely helpful in our transition to deliver software for their new Intel-based hardware.”
There you have it. The official story on why Adobe continues to support the Mac even though Mac users are a small part of the overall market. To Adobe, Mac users are a significant part of its revenue. Adobe also appears to take pride in the fact that it is the largest supplier of Mac software.
I have asked other software makers about their reasons for supporting Mac OS X and will hopefully have more to report soon.
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#1 Matt Hoult says:There is a lot to be said for the process of creating applications on OS X. I am not a software developer myself, but every cross-platform developer I have met prefers to work on OS X. Being that it fits in better with how most of Adobe’s customers work it’s the obvious choice for their development teams.
I would imagine that a lot is developed on OS X and ported to Windows (not that it doesn’t happen the other way around) for a company like Adobe. A large portion of their professional clients (the ones who actually buy their expensive software) are also Mac based which means that although Windows sales are a much higher percentage, Mac users are still there in drones. I would imagine that last year less than a third of their Mac install base bought CS2 (their bread and butter product) in anticipation of CS3. Ask the same question in a year and I would be the percentages even out a little more.
#2 Andrew says:Matt, I think you meant ‘Mac users are still there in droves’ …
I think the consensus among Mac developers and cross-platform developers I have spoken to is that people develop for the Mac because they want to and they develop for Windows because they have to. I have always imagined this to be the case for some of the larger developers too.
#3 MySchizoBuddy says:You should talk to National Instruments and Matlab. Both of them are back on mac. They started on macs but left the platform for windows. Now they are back.
why would a automation and instrumentation company make Labview for macs? How big is mac market in this area.
Matlab just ported to Intel macs, They still use X11 for the gui, but still its something. Perhaps we might see a cocoa based gui from Mathworks.
#4 Michael says:Yes, this is very much the case. Actually the numbers I have seen when comparing the premium (ie Creative Suite and Photoshop level applications) level of apps, the numbers are actually more around 60% Macintosh and 40% Windows. The number of PURCHASED copies of Photoshop on the Mac side are more than on the Windows side. This makes sense, because many high-end development houses run exclusively on Macintosh. This trend is only strengthening lately, not weakening.
So, no matter how you split the numbers 60%, 20%, 85% etc… in the end it accounts for a substantial amount of revenue for many of these companies. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Adobe folding if they were to pull out of the Mac market. There are viable alternatives to their products already on OSX. If they were to pull out, these would most likely mature more, and Apple very well could fill the gap with equivalent, or better, products.
Interesting!
#5 joecab says:I thought this was a great question to ask. But I think at some point every company supporting both platforms has to ask itself if it’s worth thinking in only financial terms or if good will plays a big role. There are plenty of powerful and influential people that choose to go Mac, and even though there may be more total sales on the Windows side, it’s not worth dumping Macs. My other gut feeling is that the Mac side has a lot more growth potential, and the code base will be easier to maintain now with everything in XCode and some self-imposed code cleaning to get there.
And speaking only as a complete Mac zealot, when I see any decently sized company choose to nly go Windows with a product I can see doing well on the Mac, I dismiss them as small potatoes.
#6 Ron Yochum says:Thats a Stupid Article.
The reason there is software for the Mac is that it makes them MONEY.
Not because they like customers, like OSX, or any other fuzzy, feel-good reason. It’s money. Despite the Mac’s “mere 6%” of market share, it ends up being millions of computers and millions of customers.
#7 Neal says:People forget that while Macs may be 6% of computers sold, many of the Wintel computers are purchased without windows software (think ATM, cash register or kiosk), or are dedicated to one task (think control system for a chemical plant). Also, when my office HP laptop is replaced this year, our IT dept will simply load the same site-licensed software on it that I had previously. Its only when the new versions of the software comes out that we might get an upgrade. And we get a new PC every 2 yrs. I think Macs last twice as long, so in the same timeframe, 2 PCs are bought for every Mac.
Mac users buy more software per computer than the average PC user does, hence the disparity in software sales vs. marketshare.
#8 Peter says:I always enjoy this debate.
Should we develop a Mac version of our software? Well, it depends on whether your customers use Macs, obviously.
While “market share” numbers insist that they aren’t, remember that market share amounts of PCs sold. It doesn’t necessarily equate to what your customers are using. If people are buying loads of low-powered PCs and your software requires high-powered PCs, the “market share” doesn’t really matter.
Depending on your software, you might be better off developing your new piece of software for the Mac instead of Windows. It’s easier and cheaper to create buzz on the Mac because it’s a smaller group. Get a bunch of Mac guys raving about how great your software is and you’ll have buzz when you bring it to Windows. That’ll help you cut through some of the noise in the Windows world and get Windows users interested. A good example of this is Bungie in the games realm.
Another entertaining reason to develop for the Mac is the smaller group for testing purposes. The iTunes Store as an example. Apple worked out most of the kinks with a smaller group of Macintosh users and got most of the back-end problems solved before opening it up to the larger universe of Windows users.
A variation on the above also has to do with your competitors. If you’re entering a market that is crowded in Windows but empty on the Mac, you might be better off developing on the Mac. Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? Again, if you’re trying to generate interest in your product, being the big fish can certainly help.
Finally, you might be smart to do both. Depending on what your application does, having a “cross platform” solution is a big win for site licenses. Consider, for example, antivirus software. The leading antivirus software vendors all have Mac versions of their software. Why? Because if I have 10,000 desktops, according your marketshare numbers, I have 600 Macs that I need to support and I’m definitely going to look favorably on a single solution for all my machines rather than having to buy one system for my Windows users and another system for my Mac users. So without having a Mac version, you’re not going to get the $500,000 site license to support my 9,000 Windows machines. In this case, supporting the Mac helps sell Windows versions.
A fun example of the above, dealing with percentages: Years ago, I worked for a company that developed a cross-platform school administration system. They were considering dropping Mac support. The argument was that “Macs account for only 25% of sales.” How did they come up with that number? Well, the sold two SKUs: A Windows-only SKU and a Mac & Windows SKU. And they sold about half-and-half. Therefore, the 25% number came from the belief that half their customers bought the Mac/Windows SKU so it was 25% (half of 50%). I immediately pointed out that if the company didn’t have the Mac/Windows SKU, they wouldn’t have 50% of their sales.
So there are a bunch of good reasons to develop for Macintosh. It really depends on whether your customers have Macintoshes. That requires actual research, which is difficult. So many people just maintain that “Well, everybody uses Windows.”
#9 Spencerian says:Don’t be part of the group that commonly confuses market share (periodic percentage of sales in relation to other PC sales) with installed base (total number or percentage of computers in-use relative to others that match sales targets for software development). Apple may sell only 5-6% of all computers per month, but the total number of Macs in the country or world is a far larger percentage (15-20%). That’s the audience for software sales. As noted in the article, the number of Mac software sales are skewed upward for some products that are more popular on Macs than Windows despite the comparative audience size, such as CS.
#10 Dean says:It goes without saying Adobe makes money off of Mac People, but in addition to that.. there are two types of fans: Those who tell you they “like you” and Those who can tell you “WHY they like you.” I’ve been to numerous Adobe Seminars and the Windows Folk can barely construt a question, it’s almost a relief for Adobe Staff Personnel to field a question by someone who really knows and really cares (Mac Folk.) You just watch and feel sorry for the lecturer as they work with confused, yet barely awake, El Lame-o windoze types. It’s more fun to develop for people who really appreciate your work. Hopefully, Mac can get back it’s market share. Steve lost it with his elitist- “Only for the Rich” attitude, now he needs to go back and get it!
#11 Beth says:I’ll tell you why we (a small start-up) are creating software for and supporting the Mac. My company Devicescape Software recently ported and released a version of our auto wi-fi connecting software for the Mac OSX - and we didn’t do it for the money. (We give the software and service away for free, so its not about money for us at this point
While the Mac community represents only a small percentage of overall computers installed in the market, it also represents a huge number of people in several markets we are targeting: creatives, designers, press people - and yes - students! We give away our software and service, but reaching these creative markets is an essential strategy for our budding company. In his article on ubiquitous computing, Mark Heiser says (I’m paraphrasing) that the when technologies “disappear” people can clearly see goals beyond the technologies themselves and create something new. The Mac users are already freer to pursue creative endeavors and other goals. These are the same people who may have the vision for the next “killer app” in the budding Mobile 2.0 market. I want my software running in these creative circles.
#12 Martin Pilkington says:I think the main reason to develop for the Mac is that while it is only 6% of the market, it’s the good 6% of the market. Mac users have money and they want to buy software. One great example of this is MS Office. Office for Mac is actually one of Microsoft’s most profitable lines.
The Mac is also far more friendly for smaller developers like myself than Windows. Much of the emphasis on the Mac is selling software online, which allows for far more smaller developers to make it big.
#13 AJ says:As a Mac only software development company, I can tell you of yet another reason the Mac is more attractive: support and development costs.
It is way cheaper to support the Mac than it is to support Windows. The variations of the OS + the variation of the hardware make it very expensive and time consuming. The same logic applies to development. Variations aside, I can tell you that developing an app like Daylite or Billings (http://www.marketcircle.com), would take longer. The tool on the Windows side are improving, but I think Cocoa still has an edge - and that makes a difference.
So while the “market share” may be smaller - it is also less costly to operate on the Mac.
#14 Jaleel King says:What I really want to know is why develop for a platform that could potentially be and very much is your direct competition?
Apple has developed it’s version of different software types to go against other packages on its system which snuffs out 3rd party developers from trying to make anything else. This also makes it difficult to find the software at times as well, ie: Media Players, Compression, ect for those not familiar with OS X vs what you can find for Windows.
What would Adobe do if Apple came out with a Photoshop like app? Apple did something like this when it did the iApplications, there are very few low cost options or innovations coming from someone other than Apple. Once iMovie, then Final Cut Express, and Final Cut came out it virtually killed off the competition on the Mac for NLE’s (Non-Linear Editor. Now their challenging After Effects with Motion which has recently add 3D to it.
I’m looking almost like it from the perspective of Blu-ray and Sony one of its major backers. Why would other studios essentially support the competition’s format when they’ll be paying their competition to further compete against them content wise.
Competition is always a good thing though but in the case of Apple they control nearly everything from the hardware to the software and everything in between.
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