Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Internet Tools, Apple
Net Applications: Macs hit a record OS share in December, iPhone up 33%
Wait a minute, the Playstation? Where are they getting these numbers from? Apparently Net Applications gets these figures by monitoring browser information from sites tracking their hits through their products (of which Hitslink is one). So a jump for "Mac" systems doesn't mean a jump in sales figures, or even ownership-- all it means is that more people whose browsers reported them as Macs visited Hitslink sites in December than in November. And more people whose browsers reported them as the iPhone did the same. Not quite the definitive numbers they first claim to be, but Net Apps says (of course they would) that these numbers do correspond to trends found by more objective studies.
And as long as they're firing up the flames on both the OS wars and the gaming platform wars, Net Apps goes ahead and swings for the triple play-- they also report that, according to their numbers, the map of people reporting as Mac owners corresponds extremely well to the blue sections of the red/blue maps of the last US elections. Um, yeah-- we're not touching that one. You guys can fight it out in the comments.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cecil Sellers said 3:56PM on 1-01-2008
I don't give a rats a... about marketshare. But, I'm totally grooved by the new blue background on the TUAW site. Thank you. I hated the Leopard space thing.
Reply
Jonathan Allen said 4:08PM on 1-01-2008
Another comment about the background - way better and way faster.
Reply
Leonard Nimrod said 4:11PM on 1-01-2008
MacIntel? Mac OS? What do these mean? Is the iPhone grouped with other? Why not iPhone,
Reply
Ed said 6:03PM on 1-01-2008
Browsers report info about the machine they run on, and part of this is the processor. For example the user agent prefpane for Camino lets you appear as running a number of browsers on your choice of PPC or intel to whoever is on the other end. So, MacIntel could refer to the users running Intel machines and Mac OS could refer to PPC machines. That's what I'd assume, anyways. Whatever it means, this is not a reliable way to test OS or hardware market shares.
Sam said 4:21PM on 1-01-2008
The "blue" areas of the country also correspond pretty well to population density, if I recall correctly. It would be pretty easy for any statistic of a tiny sample size to seem to map to the "blue" areas of the country.
Reply
Raghu said 4:47PM on 1-01-2008
The thing is that they are talking market share which is a percentage. Population density does not matter in that case. What is interesting is the fact that higher population density areas as you noted have a higher blue and mac demographic.
Seth A said 5:23PM on 1-01-2008
What version of OS X does the iPhone report? Is it listed as 10.5, or something special and able to be separated from the Desktop OS?
Reply
Luigi193 said 6:23PM on 1-01-2008
Im not Blue!
Reply
Josh said 9:29PM on 1-01-2008
Um . . . definitely a "red" guy and I have a Mac. I think their comments were total BS.
Reply
J. Scott Anderson said 9:15AM on 1-02-2008
I wonder why they don't report the iPhone as part of the OS X numbers. After all, it is an OS X device. Not like Windows Mobile where the only thing it shares with XP or Vista is part of the name.
Reply
willy the impeached said 10:55AM on 1-02-2008
Don't taze me bro, but I've got 9 macs and I'm definately no Commie ... probably too small of a sample size.
Reply
Bleh... said 12:26PM on 1-02-2008
TUAW's totally predictable comment about "Nothing compared to the iPhone" is exactly how Apple feels too. Leopard is nothing compared to their new flagship product, which happens to run a hacked version of OS X, but forget that, IT HAS A TOUCHSCREEN! That means it gets its own category, right?
Reply
Tony said 1:30PM on 1-03-2008
The Left Coast sure does love its Macs. So do Hawaii and Vermont, over 15%. Wowzers!
Reply