Chicago (IL) - Apple continues to successfully take over client operating system market share from Microsoft, at least if we believe the latest survey data released by Net Applications. Based on the data retrieved from the visitors to 40,000 websites, Apple is now estimated to hold more than 8% of the OS market, while Windows suffered a slight decline. Although Windows Vista is increasing its market share as more XP users upgrade to the newer software, Net Applications suggests that its gains are offset by the overall decrease of Windows’ market share.
It appears that Apple's Mac OS X operating system hit new record levels in September, crossing the 8% mark in Net Applications' market share estimate. Now at more than 8.2%, OS X showed a gain of almost 0.4 points within the last month. The OS X version used in the iPhone took a 0.3% share of the market, which is twice as much as in July when the iPhone 3G was released. Various flavors of Microsoft Windows dominate the data by a large margin with 90.29%. However, Windows market share declined by 0.4 points over August and dropped 1.5 points since the beginning of the year.
Vista's share of the market is increasing at the expense of Windows XP as users switch to the newer operating system. Vista took an 18.3% share in September, up nearly 0.5 points from a month ago. If the trend continues, Vista could hit the 20% milestone by the end of the year. Windows XP remains the most popular software with a 68.7% share in September, down almost 0.8 points in August.
The fact that XP lost more share than Vista gained indicates that Apple in fact may still be attracting significant numbers of Windows users. In fact the numbers for the Windows loss and the OS X gain are an exact match (0.37 points) in the Net Applications ranking.
It has to be noted, however, that OS X usage tends to show spikes in August because especially Apple seems to benefit from back-to-school sales. For example, OS X jumped 0.45 percentage points in the same period of time last year. Analysts believe that last month's back-to-school promotion, where Apple gave a free iPod touch to college students who purchased a Mac desktop or notebook, was particularly successful.
Linux slipped to 0.91% market share in September, down from 0.93% from a month ago. However, the OS is up almost 0.3 points from the beginning of this year.
It appears that Apple's Mac OS X operating system hit new record levels in September, crossing the 8% mark in Net Applications' market share estimate. Now at more than 8.2%, OS X showed a gain of almost 0.4 points within the last month. The OS X version used in the iPhone took a 0.3% share of the market, which is twice as much as in July when the iPhone 3G was released. Various flavors of Microsoft Windows dominate the data by a large margin with 90.29%. However, Windows market share declined by 0.4 points over August and dropped 1.5 points since the beginning of the year.
Vista's share of the market is increasing at the expense of Windows XP as users switch to the newer operating system. Vista took an 18.3% share in September, up nearly 0.5 points from a month ago. If the trend continues, Vista could hit the 20% milestone by the end of the year. Windows XP remains the most popular software with a 68.7% share in September, down almost 0.8 points in August.
The fact that XP lost more share than Vista gained indicates that Apple in fact may still be attracting significant numbers of Windows users. In fact the numbers for the Windows loss and the OS X gain are an exact match (0.37 points) in the Net Applications ranking.
It has to be noted, however, that OS X usage tends to show spikes in August because especially Apple seems to benefit from back-to-school sales. For example, OS X jumped 0.45 percentage points in the same period of time last year. Analysts believe that last month's back-to-school promotion, where Apple gave a free iPod touch to college students who purchased a Mac desktop or notebook, was particularly successful.
Linux slipped to 0.91% market share in September, down from 0.93% from a month ago. However, the OS is up almost 0.3 points from the beginning of this year.