June 2nd, 2008
Mac market share keeps climbing
According to monthly statistics tracked by Net Applications, the market share for the Mac platform keeps inching upwards. The same can be said for the Webkit browser used in Safari and the iPhone.
The calendar rolled over on the weekend, so the final May tally for the Mac OS was 7.83 percent; all versions of Windows totaled 91.13 percent and Linux is at 0.68 percent. The iPhone was 0.16 percent of the total computing market — based on Net Applications’ tracking of Web usage.
Back in January, the Mac share was 7.5 percent. For Windows users, this all seems like the teeny-weeny time differences seen in Olympic competition. However, for Mac users each tenth of a percent is a solid win, since there are so many Windows machines in the world and so relatively few Macs. Any movement in these stats is amazing.
Gains in the iPhone share have leveled off in the past couple of months, Net Applications said. The cause was the clearing out of the channel and that customers “holding off purchasing until 2.0 is released.”
I agree with that assessment. Everyone expects that the new version of the iPhone will be released next Monday — or at the least, announced on Monday — timed with Steve Jobs’ keynote to developers at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco.
In addition, for the share of browsers, Webkit also showed gains. Safari moved past 6 percent for the first time, with a 6.25 percent showing.
Commenting on the gains, Apple programmer Maciej Stachowiak pointed to new adoptions for Webkit on the Surfin’ Safari blog:
This growth, combined with recent WebKit adoption in projects such as the Iris Browser, Qt 4.4, Android, Adobe AIR, Epiphany, KDE Plasma, iCab and more, is breathtaking and shows huge positive momentum for the WebKit project.
David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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