Mac web presence up 35% in 12 months
Intel Macs have been good for Apple.
The number of Macs on the web is up by almost 35% on what is was 12 months ago, according to data collected by Net Applications.
[poll id=14]The numbers make interesting reading. Here's what they were as of Oct 2006:
| Operating System | Market Share (%) |
| Windows XP | 84.62 |
| Windows 2000 | 5.79 |
| Mac OS | 4.09 |
| Windows 98 | 2.04 |
| Mac Intel | 1.12 |
| Windows ME | 0.96 |
| Other | 1.35 |
Now compare those to the numbers from a year ago:
| Operating System | Market Share (%) |
| Windows XP | 77.44 |
| Windows 2000 | 10.03 |
| Windows 98 | 5.13 |
| Mac OS | 3.87 |
| Windows ME | 2.12 |
| Windows NT | 0.88 |
| Other | 0.52 |
That's pretty impressive growth. Switching to Intel certainly has been good for Apple - I think that maybe it prompted people to upgrade earlier than they might have done otherwise. In fact, you can watch the Mac Intel growth in the data clearly - uninterrupted month-on-month growth since Feb 2006:
| Month | Mac Intel Market Share (%) |
| Feb 06 | 0.03 |
| Mar 06 | 0.08 |
| Apr 06 | 0.16 |
| May 06 | 0.23 |
| Jun 06 | 0.36 |
| Jul 06 | 0.49 |
| Aug 06 | 0.62 |
| Sep 06 | 0.84 |
| Oct 06 | 1.12 |
It'll be interesting to track the progress of Mac growth over the next 12 months and watch how this plays out. If the growth is just as a result of people upgrading their old Macs for shiny new Intel ones then we're going to see the growth plateau over the next few months. However, it's possible that Apple have managed to break into new territory with its Intel-based Macs, and if that is the case Apple could enjoy further growth.
Maybe the idea of being able to run both Mac OS and Windows on an Mac is more of a selling point than I'd first anticipated?