OMEN
01-02-2008, 10:45 AM
'Phenomenal' post-Christmas surge puts OS X within shouting distance of Vista
Mac's market share reached 8% during the last two days of 2007, a record mark that a Web measurement company yesterday called "phenomenal."
For December as a whole, Apple Inc.'s machines accounted for 7.3% of all systems that browsed the 40,000 sites monitored by Net Applications Inc., up significantly from 6.8% during November. At the beginning of 2007, Net Applications pegged Mac OS X's share at 5.7%, putting the one-year growth rate at about 28%.
But it was the post-Christmas surge that really put the Mac on the market share map. "The really good news for Apple came at the end of the month," said Net Applications in a write-up on its Web site, which noted that during Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, Mac OS X-powered machines accounted for 8.01% of those monitored online. "This represents a phenomenal increase of 18% from November for the Mac."
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows still loomed large on the operating system landscape during December. But its market share of 91.8% was down from November's 92.4%. Since 2007's start, Windows has lost slightly more than 2% market share, reported Net Applications.
Among the flavors of Windows that Net Applications tracks, the six-year-old Windows XP remains king, accounting for 76% of the market. Windows Vista, however, cracked the 1-in-10 barrier for the first time in December, ending the year with 10.5% of the market.
Meanwhile, Apple's browser more than paced the growth of Mac OS X. Safari's share stood at 5.6% in December, up 32% from the 4.3% at the beginning of 2007, said Net Applications.
Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox, which is available in versions for Mac OS X as well as Windows and Linux, accounted for a record 16.8% of all browsers tracked last month, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer's share slipped to 76% from November's 77.4%. IE has lost nearly 4% market share since the start of 2007, with the overwhelming portion of that being snapped up by Firefox and Safari.
Net Applications' operating system trend (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=9) data can be viewed on its Web site.
Computerworld
Mac's market share reached 8% during the last two days of 2007, a record mark that a Web measurement company yesterday called "phenomenal."
For December as a whole, Apple Inc.'s machines accounted for 7.3% of all systems that browsed the 40,000 sites monitored by Net Applications Inc., up significantly from 6.8% during November. At the beginning of 2007, Net Applications pegged Mac OS X's share at 5.7%, putting the one-year growth rate at about 28%.
But it was the post-Christmas surge that really put the Mac on the market share map. "The really good news for Apple came at the end of the month," said Net Applications in a write-up on its Web site, which noted that during Dec. 30 and Dec. 31, Mac OS X-powered machines accounted for 8.01% of those monitored online. "This represents a phenomenal increase of 18% from November for the Mac."
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows still loomed large on the operating system landscape during December. But its market share of 91.8% was down from November's 92.4%. Since 2007's start, Windows has lost slightly more than 2% market share, reported Net Applications.
Among the flavors of Windows that Net Applications tracks, the six-year-old Windows XP remains king, accounting for 76% of the market. Windows Vista, however, cracked the 1-in-10 barrier for the first time in December, ending the year with 10.5% of the market.
Meanwhile, Apple's browser more than paced the growth of Mac OS X. Safari's share stood at 5.6% in December, up 32% from the 4.3% at the beginning of 2007, said Net Applications.
Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox, which is available in versions for Mac OS X as well as Windows and Linux, accounted for a record 16.8% of all browsers tracked last month, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer's share slipped to 76% from November's 77.4%. IE has lost nearly 4% market share since the start of 2007, with the overwhelming portion of that being snapped up by Firefox and Safari.
Net Applications' operating system trend (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=9) data can be viewed on its Web site.
Computerworld