New Survey: Vista Cleans Mac OSX's Clock

Preston Gralla, Computerworld.com

Friday, July 04, 2008 10:27 AM PDT

Apple fans have made much of the fact that the newest figures from Net Applications show that Apple's share of the operating system market has jumped almost 32% in the past year. But they're ignoring a simple fact: Vista's market share during that same time leaped more than 355%. When you add in other Windows versions, Microsoft owns more than 90% of the market.

Net Applications reports that the Mac had 7.94% market share in June, up from 6.03% a year ago. Going from a little more than 6% to just under 8% may be a big gain when measured as a percentage of growth. But when seen in absolute numbers, it's not particularly impressive.

Vista, by way of contrast, showed far more explosive growth. In June, 2007, it had 4.54% market share. In June, 2008, it had reached 16.14% --- more than a 355% gain. Those numbers are substantial not just in percentage terms, but in raw terms as well. Apple would sell the first-born children of most of its employees if it could ever get to a 16% market share.

Net Applications says that in June, all versions of Windows were on 90.89% of computers, down from 93.34% a year ago. Both Windows XP and Windows 2000 market share shrunk, while Vista's skyrocked.

It's true that in the last year, Mac OSX has made some small inroads into the operating system market. But Windows is still on more than 90% of computers. Shaving a point or two here and there won't change Microsoft's domination.

For a chart of overall operating system trends, according to Net Applications, click here. For a chart that includes version numbers, click here.

Sponsored Resource:Are you ready for virtualization? Try the sever assessment tool.
Sponsored Resource:Learn more about ultra light notebooks from Asus and the best warranty in the industry.
Sponsored Resource:Thinking about a new Laptop? Lenovo has models to meet everyone's needs.
Sponsored Resource:Get the truth about remanufactured ink. Learn more from HP.
Sponsored Resource:Six smart ways to grow small business IT

Recommend this story?
Vote Yes
Vote No
0 Yes
0 No
Email
Comment

Community Comments

News For Your Business

More News

PC World's Marketplace

PC World's Free Whitepapers

Operating Systems News

Linux / Unix - August 27, 2008
Linux End-User Summit Planned Event scheduled for October in New York City is intended to bring together users, senior Linux developers.
Windows - August 25, 2008
Vista May Still Have Its Day Think Windows Vista is a hopeless dog and XP was always the cat's meow among users? Think again.
Operating Systems - August 25, 2008
Bugs & Fixes: Fixing a Connect to Server Error What to do when you get an error message while trying to access a server via the Connect to Server command in the Finder's Go menu.
Vista - August 25, 2008
Security Researcher Warns of Vista Vulnerabilities Dynamic memory management is a weakness, he says; Microsoft alerted but has not applied patches.

Latest Expert Blogs

Glenn Fleishman on Hardware - August 15, 2008 10:11 AM
Wake Me When You Need Me, Says Intel Intel's Remote Wake lets a computer listen intelligently for a signal to rouse from sleep mode and carry out an activity.
Neil McAllister on Software - August 19, 2008 6:04 PM
Microsoft Sends Up Trial Balloons for Windows 7 While Vista takes a beating in the press, Microsoft seems increasingly willing to disclose details of its forthcoming OS.
Erik Larkin on the Web - August 27, 2008 2:28 PM
Olympic Gold Medalist Gives Props to Google Earth Kristin Armstrong, a U.S. Olympic Cyclist, credited Google Earth with helping her to find the ideal training route.

All Blogs

Featured Resources

Premier Content From Our Sponsors

HP Ink Center You don't need a big budget to produce high quality marketing materials. Click here for more info...
CDW Virtualization Center What is Virtualization and how can it help you save money? Click here for more info...