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Apple market share tops 10%, Windows share lowest since tracking began

by Robert Palmer Jan 2nd 2009 at 5:15PM

Microsoft's share of the operating system market is dropping, while Apple computers and handhelds have topped 10 percent for the first time, according to a new report on Internet-connected computers.

NetApplications, the company that tracks browser and operating system market share for a variety of sites across the Internet, released its data for December 2008. According to a Computerworld analysis, the number of Windows users decreased in December by 0.94 percent to 88.7 percent.

The fall was the steepest in four years since Net Applications began collecting data, and was also more than twice that of any similar period in the previous three years. The Computerworld article does note that December statistics do slant slightly towards the Mac due to the reduced number of in-office days for corporate users, but the overall shift is decidedly Mac-ward even once that's accounted for.

Apple's share is just over 10 percent, if one combines the market share for both Macs and iPhones. Macs account for 9.63 percent of computers online. (Windows Mobile devices are included in the 88.7 percent figure.)

Also of note, almost three quarters of Macs online have an Intel processor. This time last year, less than half had one. Overall, Mac OS X's share grew by 31.7 percent compared to a year ago.

Windows XP remains the operating system with the largest installed base, with over 65 percent of the market.



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Microsoft's share of the operating system market is dropping, while Apple computers and handhelds have topped 10 percent for the first...
 

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disk0s2

I have been using Mac OS since 2001 ( 8,9,X ), but have never left Windows from 1995, because for games. Just installed Windows 7, & it seems to me it surely will gain the share back. (will never leave Mac OS either, at work)

January 13 2009 at 5:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Julius

Lol, When osx hits 15% watch virus' come to the Mac. but also isn't the mac so boring with its colour and shape..... just apple sells Macs.

man that's why i use windows. i can change the way my pc looks. unlike you guys :)

January 05 2009 at 6:54 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Julius's comment
Vincent

Yes, you love the green button which says "start" all the time; probably you still have the "green fields" default desktop. People who wanted another Start-button got fed up with all difficulties it took; and since they learnt to hack a bit, left for Ubuntu Linux. People who wanted to change the default background, found out they had taste and bought a design-pc called MAC.

Why do Windows-users still don't understand the difference Bad Design and Good Design? No 15% market-share and then the viruses will hit...

January 12 2009 at 5:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
smoke_tetsu

It's great seeing Apple grab more market share away from the evil empire. ;)

January 05 2009 at 3:39 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to smoke_tetsu's comment
Julius

Evil Empire?

apple is evil

there iScamming.

because they pump you up for a mac with 1gb lol....

January 05 2009 at 6:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jash Sayani

The iPhone has gone far ahead in internet usage.... If Apple allows Mac OS to be installed on non-Apple hardware, then they would easily have 50% of the internet share. But again, the Mac sales would decrease greatly and revenue would also decrease.....

Come on Apple, I want to install Leopard on my notebooks !!!

January 03 2009 at 5:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alansky

@Jessica: STFU!

January 03 2009 at 3:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kevin

Damian wrote:"No one needs IE that bad."

You could have left that sentence @ "No one needs IE."

January 03 2009 at 1:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
(01)

Would an Intel Mac running bootcamp/parallels/you get the idea be identified as a Mac or a PC by NetApplications? Just wondering.

January 03 2009 at 11:15 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to (01)'s comment
Damien

If they were running windows in that virtual machine or boot camp setup then a PC.

I don't know why you'd use your virtual machine to surf though ;) No one needs IE that bad

January 03 2009 at 12:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
uacrack

apple computers are overpriced, still have a tiny percent of the market share. Their adds are annoying, sure they are not as big of risk for hackers because they have such a tiny market share.

January 03 2009 at 8:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to uacrack's comment
Jacob

You're right. Apple shouldn't even be recognized. A tenth of computers connected to the Internet is surely a "tiny" amount of the share. As a user of both operating systems I can say macs are by far superior. Of course you pay for that quality. Windows just became to stressful though

January 03 2009 at 10:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tony

Ah, yes...the old straw dogs rear their ugly head. Surprised it took so long.

So, "jessica", here's some homework:

* Go ahead and do some math to figure out what Apple's "tiny percent of the market" represents. Then, go ahead and compare their market share to other *individual* companies, like Sony, Toshiba, Acer, Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. You'll find Apple pretty high on that list.

* Next, use your favorite search engine to learn about viruses on pre-OS X Macs. Go ahead. I'll wait...Ok, good...you're back. See? See how there were literally hundreds of viruses for the Mac back when it had an exponentially *smaller* market share than it does now? Actual, in the wild, actually infecting computers, viruses. The "Macs don't have viruses because of market share" myth is totally shot out of the water with just the simplest of research. But then, I'm guessing you're a completely uninformed, ignorant and lazy troll.

January 03 2009 at 2:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Frum

I've been using Macs since the 128K in 1984, and can definitely remember when Macs--without assistance from iPhones, iPods or anything else--consistently sustained a market share above 10%.

Check the stats provided here:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/7
http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/applehis/appl1992.htm

In terms of user experience, at that point System 7 was much farther ahead of Windows 3 than OS X is ahead of XP or Vista now. That superiority was reflected--only somewhat, as politics forever calls the shots--in market acceptance.

It’s important that reporters conduct appropriate research before writing, and not just write from (recent) memory.

January 02 2009 at 11:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James Loper

dang, freebsd is bigger than i thought. :-P

January 02 2009 at 11:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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