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Apple is ready to hit the mass market, having invested heavily in marketing and retail, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer says, Macworld UK reports. Oppenheimer was speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, and the CFO referred not only to iPod's 'halo effect', but also the impact of a viruses on the Windows platform. He argues that the iPod put Apple products into Windows users' hands, often for the first time, and now the Mac Mini is arousing a great deal of interest in Windows owner-drivers. For Oppenheimer, this represents a new 'install base', and that consumers or businesses may install a second or third computer into their home or office. One of more of those computers may well be a Mac. The other major factor driving the new user base is the extensive presence of Apple Retail Stores across the US. Apple is finding it easier move its products as a result, and Oppenheimer says that Apple is now selling as much as '40-45%' of its Retail computers to people who've never been Mac owners before. The CFO also noted that Apple's higher-ed business grew by 40% year-on, and argues that iPod played a critical role in this respect, as it helped push iBook and PowerBook. iPod has even made its presence felt in enterprise, with employee purchase programs, for example. Analysis: We're probably all old enough to remember Jobs and Anderson talking '10% market share' in 2000 - before the cookie crumbled in September of that year. But Oppenheimer's right: Apple is much better-positioned now on the retail front. And in 2000, Apple was still selling G3s, no iPod and a pricey consumer-portable iBook Generation 1.2. The product line-up is much more attractive, better priced, and getting better in terms of features, and future G5s beckon. OS X is firmly entrenched, and so is the G5 (heck, even Linus uses one), there are billions of dollars in the bank and there is now a new Mac that you can take home for less than $500. That's progress.
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