The New York Times reported in October that Apple has now earned an 8.1% share in the domestic computer market. The company’s market share has grown in recent quarters due largely to their switch to Intel processors and the release of the highly anticipated Mac OS X Leopard Operating System. Steve Jobs has tried to lure users away from Windows by touting the benefits of Leopard and the elegance of Apple hardware yet market share gains have been modest at best. The fault in this marketing is that it is still too expensive for most to completely make the jump and free themselves from Microsoft. There is however one solution that would be the tipping point for most users.

PC Magazine, Macworld and many other publications have written articles comparing the cost of Apple hardware to a generic PC. Generally speaking, the costs are similar but what is always left out of the analysis is the cost of software. If we look at the cost of a PC that has legally purchased software, in many times the cost of the applications are more than the cost of the hardware! Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard is a whopping $1,186 if purchased legally. We can’t expect someone to shell out the cost of a new Apple computer and then repurchase this software (and all of the other products as well). For that reason alone, it is paramount for Apple to somehow subsidize the cost of switching by offering software trade-in options.

Apple needs to use their leverage to encourage companies such as Adobe, Intuit, EA Games and others to create trade-in programs for switchers. This could work quite simply for the consumer. Once an Apple system is purchased, the user simply mails in a trade-in form along with the original disks and licenses for their software to the appropriate vendors. The software companies could then charge a marginal shipping and handling fee and return to the user the same programs geared for the Mac OS X platform. We’re in a time of online activation and registration so it would be quite easy for these software companies to deactivate the Windows registration codes for the Windows software and activate the Apple counterpart that they are sending back. This leaves the user with a brand new Apple computer and all of their original software, still owned in legal a legal manner.

This is very easy in theory but there would definitely be some companies that would not participate. Microsoft for example would never allow this program for their Office product because they would be committing corporate suicide in letting their users move away from Windows. Apple would have to step up to the plate in this instance and offer a trade-in where they receive Microsoft Office from switchers and return a brand new copy of iWork. I think we would all agree that iWork is not as robust and generally accepted as Microsoft Office but many users that only need basic word processing should be indifferent to the swap.

Not only would this encourage a number of individuals (and likely small businesses itching to make the move) to switch, but it would reverse their switching hesitations. I would doubt that many Mac users would want to switch to Windows so most vendors wouldn’t offer this form of trade-in. If someone did switch to Mac and then had second thoughts, not being able to trade their software back for their Windows copies would keep them on the Mac platform long enough for them to become comfortable with it. I’m sure that Steve Jobs would feel that by the time the user is comfortable with Mac OS X, they wouldn’t want to switch back to Microsoft anyhow.

If Apple is to continue their attempts to gain market share in the hardware market, something needs to be done to help users recoup the costs of their software purchases. This program would work like a charm in enticing many users, especially those on the fence, into the Apple Store to purchase their first Mac. As we’ve seen time and time again, once someone owns Apple hardware, they rarely revert back to Microsoft Windows based machines.

Have any other ideas on how Apple could gain market share? Let’s hear them in the comments!