back to article Mac flirts with 10 per cent web share

Web-use statistics prove that the Mac continues to gain market share from Windows-based PCs. According to Web analyst outfit Net Applications, Mac-run browsers accounted for nearly 10 per cent of all web hits in January, coming in at 9.93 per cent. That's an increase of 0.3 per centage points from December. Use of Apple's …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Richard Cain
    Stop

    Do not fall into the Mac trap

    It's all hype.

    Switch to a Mac?

    Don't do it. Really, don't do it. Windows is the best. Trust me, I'm a gaenecologist

    Sent from a Mac praying that we can continue to pay a premium prices and stay below the e-vermins' radar.

    cc Steve Jobs (Get well soon)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Good...

    Good! And the, when we reach fifteen percent marketshare, we should stop. No more sales, no new buyers. Anyone who had previously bought a Mac will be allowed to replace it (for an additional fee), but there must be no new customers. In fact, beginning next year I'm told Macs will come equiped with DNA-scanneres which, they'll say, are for enhanced security, BUT DO NOT BELIEVE THEM! It's a ploy to keep you locked to your Mac. Oh, and you'll need to enter your DNA/license whenever Safare detects you might be browsing an Apple-centric website. Any false rumours about Dear Steve's health (praise be upon him, hosanna!) or smacking down any historic, present, or future iteration of the sainted Mac and your DNA will get scrambled. Think of it as reincarnation, only without the dying part. But oh how you wish you would have died, how you long for the sweet release of this hell wrought by your own idle fingers in an unguarded moment.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Methinks it's time to enable

    /Smug Mode

  4. Mark Jan

    Opera

    And if Opera wins in Europe there'll be even more to sing about.

    Less IE = more web security = win win all round (except for MS).

    It's about time the insecure, bloated piece of crap that MS produce as a sorry excuse for a browser is once and for all confined to the software dustbin of dustbins.

  5. Robert Moore
    Gates Horns

    But seriously

    I am not really surprised.

    The general public are tired of Windows machines that crash, freeze, come loaded full of crapware, and get slower and slower from the day you buy them until you feel the need for a new one. (A reinstall would fix things right up.)

    Two coworkers. (Software developers) have just bought Macs. and my brother (A landscaper) have just bought Macs.

    Mostly though I think it is just Vista. It has such a bad reputation that no one wants it on their new computer, and since they can't buy a laptop with XP, a large number of people are deciding to give this Apple thing a try.

  6. Neil
    Jobs Horns

    Drill it down mofo

    Safari on a PC doesn't = a Mac user :p

  7. Robert Synnott

    Not terribly surprising

    See, the interesting thing about macs is that any given mac will tend to remain in service longer than a comparable Windows machine. Look how many PPCs there are still! I suspect that this is largely because of Windows's tendency to get unbearably slow after about three years; presumably standard consumers simply replace the machine at that point.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Nice to see some competition

    Microsoft have had it their way for far too long. The world needs competition on the desktop and in browsers. Had it not been for Firefox et al slowly nibbling away at the Windows browser market, there would *never* had been IE8.

    Same for the desktop. If it weren't for the competition, you could have it any colour you like as long as it's Vistarrgh. Microsoft would never have polished their turd called Vista and brought Vista SE/Windows 7 forwards.

    There's a ceiling on the Mac. Most Mac people don't want the gormless Windows tribe to switch and turn the exclusive Mac into mainstream.

    So, Windows users: Macs are horrible. Really difficult to use; ugly, insecure, unreliable, expensive. Windows is just soooo much better: easier to use, secure, fun, reliable, cheaper; Windows just works... Billy and Balmer are such visionaries and should be beatified...

  9. graeme leggett Silver badge

    what's the uncertainty in the measurement

    the error in measurement might be 0.3% in , which case report = bugger all use

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Explanation

    1. Non technical people with PCs who have had Safari forced onto their pc by itunes

    2. iDiots buying iphones and ipods even though there are much better, cheaper, more functional and better looking phones and mp3 players available, they just lack the brand name.

    Personally, I am waiting for the huge increase in mac virii that will come soon so I can laugh at the iDiots and tell them to use Linux (or even Windows) instead.

    Mac users will actually be a much easier target for spyware simply because they have no security software, a lot don't even have a firewall beyond their router.

  11. Henry
    Stop

    What's amiga got to do with this?

    I thought Amiga was part of the "real computer old timer" line of pub war stories.

  12. Simon

    @Buck Futter

    I will have what you are drinking...

  13. Antidisestablishmentarianist

    Firefox

    I hate to say it, as I associate FireFox with bad hygiene, but I've been using it on my Mac for the past several months as Safari had turned into a crashing/freezing pile'o'poo. Still, I had to hunt out a Safari skin for FF, as the standard one positively reeks of said bad hygiene. Yuk.

  14. spegru
    Gates Horns

    The more the merrier

    I'm not really a fan of Apple (at least not their prices anyway), but I do appreciate them. Good looks and something else that is not M$FT

    As far as I am concerened the more popular non M$FT, non-Windows PC platforms are, the more people will realise there is an alternative - whether its a PC substitute like a Mac or something else such as a linux netbook, PDA or iPhone

    It's funny how people never ask why other tech stuff such as TV sets and mobile phones are not the all same - and yet some people seem to have this idea that all PC type machines run WinXP. Maybe their minds will be opened by increase in the numbers of *anything* else .................

    Funny thing is you could maake the same arguement for Vista....................

  15. Liam Thom
    Coat

    Cobblers

    I have no gripe either way with whichever operating system is cool at the moment. Ubuntu, XP and OS X are all great. Vista is shit of course.

    However... I don't think the stats are right at all.

    According to Google Analytics for some of my sites, the techy ones show good percentages for Macs and Linux - in the region of 9% and 3% respectively, but any non-nerdy sites, such as an accommodation directory of mine show in the region of 4% for Macs and 1.5% for Linux. A cricket site I made shows 97.71% Windows use.

  16. This post has been deleted by its author

  17. Matt
    Dead Vulture

    Can we have the full picture please?

    I've no doubt the Mac is gaining market share. However, raw percentages don't really mean much here. For the sake of simple number, if there are 100 PCs in the world and 90 of them use Windows and 10 use OS X, then fine. But if the following month the figures become 105 machines, 90 Windows and 15 OS X, then the percentage change doesn't mean what you think it means.

    Sure it'd mean that new uptake is primarily Mac based, which is still bad for MS. But it doesn't mean people are leaving Windows.

    Yes, this is overly simple, just demonstrating a point. I'd just like to know something more than the headline percentages.

  18. Dan Wilkinson
    Thumb Down

    @ Various of you

    Hmmm, so Apple not only tricked Windows users into installing Safari (because everyone knows on Windows you only need to Next>Next>Finish and there is no requirement to actually check what you are doing), but the also managed to set it as the default browser, and then miraculously force people into continuously using it since that time? Yeah, OK, I buy that...

    And because there are "better, cheaper, more functional and better looking phones and mp3 players available", then those users don't deserve to have their statistics included? Well, on that basis, why not exclude every single I.E. user out there. Yay! Firefox wins the web!

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why fooled Safari users and not IE?

    Why does one continuously hit on those "fooled" into installing Apple's Safari via Apple Software Update, and not hit equally hard on Microsoft doing the same for base installation and Microsoft Updates?

    One can not (readily) install essential Microsoft updates and fixes without running a current version of IE.

    What I don't like about Safari on Windows is that I haven't found a way to mute the complaining dialog box which asks/demands to install FLASH.

  20. bob the admin
    Jobs Halo

    safari on windows

    "But some of those Safari hits come iPhone and iPod touch users, and others come from people fooled into installing Apple's browser on their Windows machines."

    first off anything is better than IE, secondly I wouldnt be surprised if you were to see Safari for the Android or Blackberry OS

    -----------

    see apps in action - http://www.iPhoneAppDemo.com

  21. martin burns
    Black Helicopters

    Forced? Bwahahahah

    Obviously our Coward is not only Anonymous, but extremely suggestible. Forced my eye! Only if by going near the apple site you're sucked over the event horizon of mind-bending control that is the Steve iAura.

    May I suggest he/she looks into my eyes (not around the eyes, in the eyes) and succumbs to buying this here bridge. In cash, mind.

  22. J
    Linux

    That's why...

    That's why MS is in such a hurry with the Windows 7 thing. They know Vista is hurting. Or at least its reputation is, which is exactly the same.

    As I've said before somewhere, my (wrong?) ideal computing world would be one where no OS or app had more than 30% market share (figure scientifically pulled out of my rear end). That would force everyone to follow standards in both hardware and software, at least in the general consumer markets. You know, quite similar to <obligatory car metaphor> the car industry </obligatory car metaphor>. Who would want to create a website (or sell a printer, or write a text editor, a browser plugin, etc.) for only 30% or less of the market?

    Thus say I: go Apple, and march, penguins! The little devil or the Sun gods are welcome to join in too, of course.

    Otherwise, I don't really care what other people use, as long as it does not affect me.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Or possibly...

    Mac users have been infected by the 2.0 virus and spend more time surfing that PC users?

    Anyway given the predicted rise in XP and Win7 netbook sales I suspect its will soon start going back down again.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    My last mac

    I purchased a mac a few years ago and am still waiting for it to change my opinion. Over priced under supported and too much tie-in.

    Last bit of Apple hardware I ever buy.

  25. RW
    Unhappy

    @ Richard Cain

    "Sent from a Mac praying that we can continue to ... stay below the e-vermins' radar."

    Nightmare-inducing prediction: the e-vermin will look very closely at the standards for the Web (html, CSS, JS, etc) and figure out ways to screw the world over via obscure holes in the standard: browser- and platform-independent malware, iow.

    Reading about some of the fancy new malware that's making the rounds, one almost wonders if the standards people shouldn't hire the Russians and Ukrainians and Rumanians and Chinese behind the tidal wave of malware, pay them extravagant salaries, and get them to design malware-proof replacements for all current online systems, from tcp/ip right through web browsers.

  26. baswell
    Boffin

    @any idot who think Safari/Win or FF/Mac changes the numbers

    Yo, you ignorant lot who wouldn't know I User-Agent header if it hit them in the face:

    You can not only tell the browser, but also the OS and even machine architecture from your access logs.

    So Safari on Windows still registers as Windows and Firef***ed on Mac is still a Mac, m'OK?

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Oh dear

    Thats bad news for Apple, the higher their market share, the more likely it is for the EU to look at their behaviour and start to hit them with anti-trust regulations, the same as MS gets hit with.

    The *only* reason they are currently not looking at Apple is because of Microsoft, but eventually their market share will be large enough that the EU will have no other option but to curtail their anti-competition behaviour.

  28. Brian Whittle

    1 and 1 equals 3 ?

    Computer is growing all the time so it stands to reason that more and more people have Windows PCs as the down turn is very modest, nothing to see here people.

  29. David Wilkinson
    Happy

    I'd like to see three players in the OS market

    I'd like to see three players in the OS market with none of them having more than 60% market share. Imagine what that would be like.

    You'd probably have real write once and run anywhere languages/frameworks, real standards, real choices.

    I think everyone's products would improve based on healthy competition.

    I don't like Macs because I like to build my own systems and I don't like reduced software/hardware options, but I am really rooting for them to get some double digit gains in market share.

  30. P. Lee
    Linux

    Go Go Go!

    Ok I don't have a Mac and I can't see them becoming the business option of choice - I don't think Apple would even want that. Macs have a much higher upfront cost (though I suspect if you count software its evened up a lot), but more people are picking them over MS's product when they have a choice.

    As far as I'm concerned, I'd like to see MS suffer on the home-user front because it introduces variety and debate into the question of choosing software. I really hate to see a product/company do well purely because it is the incumbent and I reckon more Mac's at home means more Linux at the office. And I spend a lot of time in offices.

  31. Hugh_Pym

    @oh dear

    That would be good news for Microsoft in the EU because the reason that they are fined is that they abuse a near monopoly position to kill competition. No monopoly = no fines.

    Who knows perhaps they deliberately brought out Vista to loose market share. If so it has been very successful strategy.

  32. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Softly softly, catchee MoneyKeys on Safari.

    "Safari on a PC doesn't = a Mac user :p" .... By Neil Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 19:30 GMT

    Maybe not, Neil, but it does allow Apple to Show Boat and Pimp ITs Core Driver Elements/Algorithms on a Virtual Machine Hosted and Supported by Microsoft ...... which is a Neat Trick.

    And are such Market Share gains on an exponential rise curve with such a Stealthy Succour Strategy?

    "Reading about some of the fancy new malware that's making the rounds, one almost wonders if the standards people shouldn't hire the Russians and Ukrainians and Rumanians and Chinese behind the tidal wave of malware, pay them extravagant salaries, and get them to design malware-proof replacements for all current online systems, from tcp/ip right through web browsers." .... By RW Posted Monday 2nd February 2009 20:43 GMT

    RW,

    What attraction is an extravagant salary whenever you can own/pawn the company code to Interested Parties in every land, earning Fortunes for many as well as for oneself?

  33. Alexis Vallance
    Flame

    Sigh

    What do you guys take people for?

    The scenario of a Windows user being tricked into downloading and installing Safari is slim enough.

    But actually then using it to surf the web? Are you syaing there are people out there using it thinking they're running some new version of IE or something???

    "Something tells me that's not market-share, it's just Windows is shit."

    +1

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    RE: Explanation

    AC wrote: "Mac users will actually be a much easier target for spyware simply because they have no security software, a lot don't even have a firewall beyond their router."

    That'll be because there's a firewall bundled with the OS. I might be wrong but I think it's turned ON by default.

    So, no firewall beyond the router. I let the ISP handle traffic out there...

  35. Toastan Buttar
    Linux

    How many viruses ???

    "Oh, and on another matter entirely, since there are currently no self-replicating malicious executables (or "viruses") for Mac OS X, it'll have to be a pretty dramatic rise before we're even close to the 150,000 estimated windows ones, won't it. Something tells me that's not market-share, it's just Windows is shit."

    OK, so perhaps 150,000 viruses have been targetted at the Windows platform (past and present), but how many of those 150,000 would actually be able to execute on a properly patched modern machine ? I don't use any AV products on XP SP 3 and it's been ticking over just fine and dandy for the past 2 1/2 years. No P\/\/n1ng, no BSOD's, all my Windows programs run perfectly without having to fiddle about with WINE settings, and I've got drivers for every piece of hardware I can throw at it.

    The secret ?

    http://blogs.msdn.com/aaron_margosis/pages/TOC.aspx

    Tux, because I like using Ubuntu, as well. It's all good.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    @ Methinks it's time to enable /Smug mode.

    Come off it, it's the only mode Mac users have.

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    @AC 10:36

    Well if it is anything like "iptables" then you are correct. It's on and in (pretty much) a total lock-down state. The biggest grief is figuring out what ports and what IPs are allowed (this is non-trivial for the home user and requires a high-level of technical expertise; one reason why Linux is still not ready for the big time). But it is much, much more secure than Windows for incoming, generally it is open for outbound on all ports for all applications. Major problem.

    This false feeling of security leaves it wide-open to tricking the user into running something that is malicious and then there is no protection. At least on Windows the anti-virus will stomp on it or the firewall will ping up and ask "Do you really want to allow xyz.exe to access the net?" and as the AV/Firewall is heterogeneous it is very hard for malware writers to target, this is not the case on Linux at all. The GUI may change, but the firewall stays the same and there is *NO* AV protection.

    There is none of the third-party checking that goes on in Windows and this complacency is (potentially) a serious threat to the *nix crowd. It is something they will need to address over the next 5 years if they want to be ready for the average user (I'll repeat, Linus is not there yet).

  38. Dave
    Dead Vulture

    @Article

    "But some of those Safari hits ... come from people fooled into installing Apple's browser on their Windows machines."

    I don't really think that counts: no-one was forced to use the browser once installed, so any such users must be ones who actually found it to be better than what they were using before.

    To take the reverse angle: almost all of the hits for IE were from people who had been fooled into installing Windows without adding a decent web browser. No doubt many would choose to use a different browser if given a totally free choice.

    No doubt most of the users of FireFox were tricked into it by those malicious adverts on the Google home page?

  39. Gis Bun
    Pirate

    Big woopie

    Oh wow! Huge story. Front page news! Mac OS finally comes close to 10% market share. Give me a break. The Mac has been out for [what] 25 years now and only hit 10%. At this rate [with a 0.3% increase per month if they could keep it up] it would still take probably 10 years to come close to Windows' market share and that's unlikely.

    Steve Jobs may be an innovator or good at marketing but he killed the OS by not allowing it to install the OS on any hardware. Why? So Apple could reap a 25-50% markup on the exact same hardware sold on a typical PC.

    With the economy slipping, if someone had a choice between a $1000 Windows PC [even with Vista on it] or a $1400 Mac - with the same hardware specs, they'd still choose a PC. I would.

  40. Mike Moyle
    Coat

    @ Liam Thom

    >> A cricket site I made shows 97.71% Windows use.

    ...Well, that pretty much says it all, doesn't it?

  41. Harold Onraet Khelf

    "Mac flirts with 10% web share"

    Mac is certainly excellent, and less accident-prone than Windows; it is a pity though, that their computers are so expensive.

    Not everyone is willing, or able, to spend so much money!

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like