Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Apple's market share in personal computers peaked at 16 percent in 1986 and has hovered in the low single digits since the late 1990s.

Even as the iPod was becoming a cultural and business phenomenon, the company ranked just 10th among all PC-makers in the third quarter of this year with 1.9 percent of the market, according to research firm IDC.

It's a familiar story for Apple watchers. Creating innovative technologies and high-quality products that lead the industry has been a hallmark of the Silicon Valley company, but it is equally famous for failing to maintain momentum.

Some examples: Apple produced one of the first personal digital assistants, the Newton, which disappeared after the Palm and Microsoft-based Pocket PC devices appeared.

It revived itself with colorful, bubble-shaped iMacs in the late 1990s, but they produced only a small upward blip in market share that has since subsided.

Now, Dell, Rio and others are nipping at Apple's heels with their own digital-music players, and analysts do not expect Apple to hang onto its enormous lead in that market forever.