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NPD says .Mac is second most popular retail offering so far this year
NPD: Apple’s .Mac second most popular retail offering so far this year
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 - 09:34 AM EST

.MacApple's .Mac online service "has been the second most-popular Mac offering at retail so far this year, according to The NPD Group," Eric Lai reports for Computerworld.

"For US$99, buyers get one year's access to Web-based storage, e-mail and address book syncing between their iMacs and iPhones, among other features," Lai reports.

"Still, customers may be taken a bit aback when they open up the .Mac box and discover "there's nothing in there other than a license key," said Chris Swenson, an analyst at the NPD Group," Lai reports.

"The conventional wisdom is that software as a service (SaaS) is finishing what piracy, open-source and the Web started: killing the packaged software market," Lai reports.

"But in fact, the packaged software market is still growing. According to NPD Group, US retail sales of packaged software so far this year (including those by online retailers) are up 10 percent," Lai reports. "Office 2007 alone has captured one out of six US dollars spent at retail on software so far this year, Swenson said."

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