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Some will laugh and say what tiny numbers. That they are irrelevant. Please note that they are indeed small, BUT the trend is what is important here. The trend is upward. Therefore it is merely a matter of time before the naysayers will go hmmmmm.....

This accounts for everyone, everywhere using their Windows computers at work, too. It's skewed in favor of business machines, as are all the "marketshare" numbers. Apple's market is consumers. The other guys make their cash from businesses. Hm, Apples to oranges? It would be a major coup if someone could deliver statistically reliable data that made a distinction between home and office users and like purchases.

Yeah, but 6% is a figure I can live with. I think a company is quite healthy if it has a 6% share of a multi-hundred billion dollar business.

Now that the range is all intel, how come the non-intel figure is so high?

Nice to see the upward trend. However, true marketshare can only be determined by actual physical Mac sales in relation to actual physical PC sales, not by websites visited.

on the software side Apple is competing with windoze and unix.
on the hardware side they are competing with a host of box makers.
they are clearly the underdog and they clearly are doing very well.

Huh??? How can non-Intel Macs market share rise when the company stopped making them months ago??

These numbers are huge if you look at the big picture.

oops, market share. doh

ducnan, the intel share is smaller most likely because mac users use their macs longer. my ibook is a g4, I've used it for a few years, and won't upgrade until new powermacs come out. I'm sure many are in the same g4/g5 boat, waiting for upgrades. Or, they're happy with their mac, since it's running fine 4 yrs after the purchase, and there's no need to upgrade!

I’m sure I’m missing something, but why are the PPC numbers increasing? Makes sense the overall Mac marketshare is increasing, and certainly the macintel number, but does apple even sell non-intel macs anymore?

Huh??? How can non-Intel Macs market share rise when the company stopped making them months ago??

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Because they aren't measuring true marketshare in regardes to sales, they are measuring "market-share on the web." Many PC's are stuck in corporate enviroments running Word and Excel, and are used very little on the web..

ducnan, cogito:

Not sold new, but plenty PPC Macs were passed from Mac users to others as they went Intel and many PPC Macs were sold used and refurbed.

I suspect a lot of Mac users gave their old PPC Macs to family and friends (at least I hope they did) as they bought new Intel-powered Macs.It's a great way to spread the word: "Here's my old iBook, iMac, etc. Try it out and see how great it is!"

I think the important thing here is the fact that it shows an increase, based on the same methodology as before.

Whether you agree or disagree in how these figures are worked out, you cannot dissmiss that fact that use of the Macintosh platform is going up, not down.

@Buster

Naysayers?

I don't know what you're talking about. If you replace "naysayers" with "truth-tellers" you might have something, but then again, Mac market share will never reach 5% so your bold prediction of truth-tellers saying "hmmmmm…" will never come to pass. People are too smart to buy overpriced, proprietary, user-hostile Apple junk. Vista is here, the market has already spoken and Apple is quitting the computer business.

Go back to your little toy computer, smoke your dope and listen to music on it while you can. I'll be updating some spreadsheets for my boss.

Your potential. Our passion.

The truth is more important than the facts.

You know, if M$ were smart (no need to worry there) they would make a claim that the reason that mac sales are up is because they can run Windoze and not because MacOS is better. They could just say that Apple makes a cooler computer than Dell or HP, but now it can run the coolest OS (puke). After all, it is the most innovative, right, with things like parental controls built into the OS (Wow!) and able to look at all your current windows at once (sort of) (wow!!) and, well, never mind...

I can imagine non-Intel market share rising as people getting Intel Macs unload their PPC Macs on eBay, and people curious about Macs looking to get onto the platform cheaper.

Zune Tang, You're joke is getting really stale.

Isn't each 1% increase worth $1 billion to Apple?

Not to be sneezed at...

Extrapolate this forward and it will run at 4% per annum. ie the target to overtake Microsoft by 2010 could be right. Just on Mac business growth they could be at $32 billion by 2010.

Why is the MW "million"? We're talking billions here..

Watch the numbers climb when the CS3 apps are released. Adobe has too much influence over Mac sales.

I'd be more interested in a realistic number for installed base broken down by hardware type and OS version. I have no doubt there are shops using OS 8 and 9 because they still get the job done. I remember reading that the lights in the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur are controlled by a Mac SE.

Zune Tang is up, dating his boss and spreading his sheets?
I hope he gives him something hard to bite down on.

Hey Zuney - don't forget to finish off that pie chart of your last family vacation while you're at it.

Me thinks Net Applications' figures stink! Probably just show increased internet use in the run up to (and follow on from) Christmas - and the very real likely hood that Mac users are far more inclined to safely use the internet for buying gifts etc. Fred's idea about second-hand Macs handed over to Granny is a bit of wishful thinking too.

Yep, there is a very good used Mac market which is mostly PPC based Macs.

Anyone else seeing server errors at Google news http://news.google.com/ ?

More importantly,
If website hits are up 50% since August you can probably expect that 50% increase to translate into unit sales on the earnings report. Mac sales growing by 50% on a YonY basis. That is Huge.
Note, Amazon still has 4 of top 5 machines as Macs after Vista launch. Amazon isn't a huge computer seller, but it definitely reflects stronger passion for Macs over Dells, Compacs, Toshiba.

MW=Phenominal as in Growth!

Macaday: I am. Maybe they caught a virus.

Isn't each 1% increase worth $1 billion to Apple?
— Macaday

That's why Apple wants M$ always to have more users than Apple does. Once the number of each platform's users is equal, it's like hitting peak oil — the profit figure drops.

M$ is working for Apple and doesn't know it, just as Ford, with its crappy products, is working for Toyota.

And you thought the Ford-M$ "partnership" is coincidence?
Their great minds at the top think alike.

"Since August (4.33% total), Mac market share has risen 1.89% in just the past five months."

No.

(6.22-4.33)/4.33 = 43.6%

The Mac market share has risen 43.6% in the past five months.

@Zune Tang

"Naysayers? I don't know what you're talking about."

Why doesn't that surpise me. Let me put it in simple ter......dDidn't the article indicate that Apple's market share >5%....Mr. NaySayer?

Or were to too busy bending over and spreadsheeting for your boss?

Anecdotal evidence. My daughter is a sophomore at a large public university in the South. Bought her a 12 inch Powerbook for graduation. Her freshman year her Mac was viewed as a curiosity by most of her fellow students. Last week I was visiting her and one of her friends was asking questions about buying an Apple laptop. daughter told me Dad everyone is asking me questions now, what model, where do I get one, what can it do, how much do they costs?

I've had more high school age students friends of my high school son asking me similar questions now, where even a year ago they weren't. How does it get on the internet, I'm thinking of getting one for college can you show me this and that.

Seems to me there's a definite up-trend in the teen and college age as for as interest goes (at lest in my area)

Now if we could only get an Apple store!

Market share will increase at an accelerating rate. Mac users create more Mac users. My circle of 6 friends went from one Mac user in 1999 to all Mac users 5 years later. We just converted each other.

> Huh??? How can non-Intel Macs market share rise when the company stopped making them months ago??

Probably because of the very healthy used/refurbished market. Go to eBay to see that used Macs command a hefty price (compared to Windows PCs of equivalent age). Even a Mac from the 2000 runs Mac OS X Tiger nicely. I suspect many "switchers on a budget" are opting for a used or refurbished Macs instead of paying "full price" for a new Mac. Even Apple has some "refurb" Macs on their online store "Sales" page. The number is going UP because the collective "stockpile" of these used Macs (sitting in people's closets and vendor warehouses) is going down due to the increasing popularity of Macs in general.

I like this Net Applications indicator, because it measures trends in "user share" and not the share of new computers being sold.

a point here, a point there, before you know it you're talking real numbers.

@Zune Tang

I AM the boss of my company, and all my guys use macs, because they are much more productive with them (and no, we are nothing to do with graphics, but in the manufacturing industry). I also value my workers, and want them to have the best - the icing on this delicious little cake is that being more productive (doesn't matter if the are using office or Open Office, spreadsheets look equally dreary/spiffy - your view dependant upon how greasy your hair is, I think) they also make me more money, and with less downtime on the macs, they make me even more money. Think smarter, bub!

Meanwhile, you might want to ask why you aren't realising YOUR potential, and working for yourself, or doing something more enjoyable than fawning over spreadsheets. Or maybe, jut maybe, you already have realised your portential, and will always remain just a paeon.

Now, get me a coffee, would you, and hurry.

tipping point

It's not sales market share, but installed base that is being indirectly measured. The derivative -- for those who know calculus -- normalized by the installed base number gives an estimate of the fractional change in market share. See geo's post above.

What is important is the relative increase, the fact that numbers are small is not that important. MacIntels gained 24% in ONE MONTH alone. This is a gigantic rate of growth. They can realistically capture 10% sometime in 2008, while analysts expect that to happen after 2010 if at all.
The fact that PowerPC Macs are increasing reflects the fact these older Macs are still sold via Apple outlet and 3rd party stores.

Note, Amazon still has 4 of top 5 machines as Macs after Vista launch. Amazon isn't a huge computer seller, but it definitely reflects stronger passion for Macs over Dells, Compacs, Toshiba.


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Not a true reflection at all. Especially considering Dell and HP don't even sell (new) computers through amazon (though you may find used ones) and together Dell and HP account for nearly 60% of all PC's sold.

It's not sales market share, but installed base that is being indirectly measured.

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True, but installed base is growing for ALL Pc manufacturers, according to Apple's latest Q1 results, Mac marketshare actually took a slight dip compared to the September quarter.

@Zune Tang

For being such a closet Mac fan, you really should stop fooling yourself. Just get that Mac you've always wanted and start doing some real computing. After you do so, you could still boot up into Windows to show the other gaming kids you hang with that they can still be your friends also.

double digit market share here we come

It should be noted that OSX may be the only OS in history that later versions will actually improve the speed of an older machine. I actually know someone who has the 1G firewire iMac (from 5 years ago?) that just upgraded to Tiger and she says it runs faster & more stable. So until the monitor CRT dies, that machine will plug along surfing the internet. Like others mentioned, it is antedotal but probably a lot of upgraders are passing along "older" machines to others and unlike most 5 year old PC's - a 5 year Mac is right up to date - you probably can't do CAD work but surfing the net and average everyday stuff, a 5 year old Mac running 10.4 certainly beats a PC running ME from 5 years ago.

They use mostly porn sites.

Everyone knows porn addicts use Windows and IE.

Their numbers are highly suspect.

Correction:

NOV: 4.10% + 1.29% = 5.39% not 5.29%

Please watch your math language. According to these stats, Mac share rose by 1.89 "percentage points," not 1.89 "percent" or 1.89 "%." As another poster noted, the share rose by 43.65 percent.

Remember when comparing two percentages of a whole, you compare the difference stated in percentage points. Example in round numbers: An increase from 2 percent share to 3 percent share is a 1 percentage point increase, but a 50 percent increase --

2 x 1.50 = 3,
2 + 50% = 2 + (50% x 2) = 2 + 1 = 3.

POWER PC numbers rose because companies like ours bought a load of POWER PC's a year ago to feed to new hires as needed. We still have 10 G5 towers in boxes waiting for new hires. Our IT dept. did not want Intel/rosetta conflicts.

The only way the obsolete (and I mean that in the nicest possible way) PPC-powered Mac market share could increase would be if in this month the total installed PC market (Macs, Windows PCs and Linux/Unix boxes), as measured by the methods used by Net Applications, contracted, which seems unlikely.

Since this method of measurement is based on internet hits, and not on sales, it can only mean that either the Mac users are visiting more of the monitored sites than they have in the past, the sites that are being measured have changed, or Windows/Unix using folks have turned away from these monitored web sites (for whatever reason).

While I believe that the Mac market share is growing (hell, I have talked at least two people into switching the the past month, just by demonstrating my Macbook), I wouldn't be hanging my hat on these statistics, as they seem a bit flawed.

Common sense would suggest that if, as reported elsewhere, that around 50% of intel-Mac purchasers are switchers, then around half (the other 50%) are PPC-based Mac users upgrading, so the PPC-Mac installed market share should decrease at half the rate the Intel-Mac market share is increasing...

i'm buying a new Mac Book this year, I'm waiting for the next model/speed bump if there is one. Don't forget to count me.

I got already my 2nd intel Mac, a Mac Pro and previously my MBP.

The dual G5 and the Powerbook now are used by my brother and a friend. They both had mediocre PCs before. They now are 'thinking again' about not considering Macs for their next computer investments.

If that is a trend among Mac users thence PPC presence online will not decline just because their owners get into intel Macs. Might even rise a bit as now there are 2 users online with those old PPC Macs while previously they had only one user to bring them *there*.