Apple’s OS X operating system has climbed previously unforeseen heights: it now has an 8.2% market share. Hey, Windows, we can see your house from here.
This means Apple has realized a gain of 3 percentage points in two years—and 6 percentage points since 2003, when Panther could only scare up a 2% market share.
Windows still has its scaly grip on 90% of all operating systems, while the open source Linux (best known as the operating system of choice for people allegedly smarter than us) has almost 1% to call its own.
Interestingly, the iPhone is considered its own operating system. At .32%, it’s not nearly enough of a market share to rival Linux. But it’s far more entertaining.
The Mac OS saw a tremendous gain in November 2007, and the blogosphere speculated that OS X might top 8% earlier than it did. In fact, it was suggested that OS X would reach 10% by the end of 2008. Alas, although that number looks good to us, it’s a tad optimistic. And just plain wrong.
Then again, it’s only October 1.
Blair.Charlie
October 08, 2008 at 6:02am
i think that they can receive a higher increase in the next 2 more years if they had sort of like an interesting hook or ad. Something that will draw viewers attention. And at that, something for people of all age. But what do i know. Im just a kid.
Yoder54
October 02, 2008 at 10:30am
There is one mis-leading component to these stats and that is the fact that MS 'owns' the business sector, which is less inclined to change platforms or much of anything for that matter. But, my guess is that this is only temporary. What I would like to see is what is the market share if the business sector is dropped from the picture? Seems like a lot of consumers are fed-up with the MS way, and the MS ads only shows MS's desperation at retaining their market share. Furthermore, if Apple does drop prices Oct14, then we may very well see a 10% market share by year end.
Finally, I keep and watch the stats on my site religiously co-bw.com, and have noticed a couple of things going on the past year. First, IE is loosing its dominance and Firefox is making a run for it. Second, the Mac OS market share on my site has increased far more than 8%...it averages about 25%...but, I only appeal to consumers and not the business sector. This month is the first time (granted only three days into it) that Mac has had more browsers than Windows on my site. Personally, it is nice to see some change and I only hope that it continues its upward spiral.
