An analyst from Needham & Co says that, this year alone, there are one-million switchers who turned in their Windows PC for an Apple. He predicted that, in 2006, another 1.3 million people would make the switch to the Apple platform.

This is very good news for Apple and it has to thank the iPod for its success.

Is the end in sight? No, not at all. At this point, there is only one competitor for the iPod, and that is Sony. But it is way behind on the iPod. It will be a very tough job to beat the iPod or even come close any time soon. So, as long as the iPod is rocking at the top, Apple sales will increase!

What bothers me is that, while the iPod is an awesome product, people overlook OS X and Apple’s hardware as being awesome products, too! What happens when the iPod sales drop or when there is a better product entering the market? Apple should put more effort in promoting the hard end software products it has to offer! But that’s just me!

[John van Leeuwen]

Tags: switch, ipod, sony, needham & co, os x vs. windows