Most iMacs selling to existing Mac users

As expected, the iMac is most compelling to existing Apple users, who havebeen waiting for something innovative out of Cupertino for years. Accordingto data from ComputerWare, the largest remaining Mac-only retailer in theU.S., approximately 75% of iMacs being sold are going to people whopreviously owned Macs. Interestingly, 15% are new to computers and 13% arereplacing a Intel PC. The iMac is on target to sell 400,000 units by theend of the year, an amazing feat for Apple: Their previous crop of Macs,the G3 desktop line, sold only 133,000 units in its first two months, almost exclusively to existing Mac users.

What's interesting about this story, I suppose, is the spin other newsagencies are putting on it: According to many stories on the Net, the 13%of users who are upgrading an Intel PC to an iMac is a sign that, somehow,the Mac is making inroads in Windows territory. Let's put this in perspective: The trends we're quoting come from ComputerWare, which onlysells Macintosh computers and the numbers represent only 500 actual iMacsales. This is hardly a wholesale indication of any sort of transition, byany measure. But then the truth usually makes poor copy on the Internet