Mac’s share of web usage shrinks a skinch
Apple’s ongoing assault has made a retreat, a regular occurrence in the months and years since users of the fairer platform began clawing back market share from Redmond’s acquisitive clutches. Thereupon, the real tale of the tape will be told in the weeks and months ahead—can the Mac keep the pressure on?
February Net Applications Web usage data parsed by operating system shows that while Linux users managed gain share, partisans of Mac accounted for less than 10 percent of the traffic measured. Moreover, last month’s survey includes iPhone (Mobile OS X) data in with Mac OS X, which means there has been a slide of 0.7 percent from January’s 10.41 percent combined share—an all time high.
Windows on the rebound
• Windows—89.37 (88.26 percent)
• Mac OS—9.71 (9.93 -> 10.41 including iPhone)
• Linux—0.89 (0.83)
• FreeBSD, SunOS—0.03 (new listing)See also: Apple: January Mac Units Down 6%; iPods Down 14%, Barrons
With iPhone data now subsumed in the general (Mac) OS X number, I wonder which part of Apple’s business shrank (see also Report: iPhone has “commanding lead” on Web in Fortune). The easy and probably correct assumption here is that the Mac has taken the hit as recent retail sales data would seem to indicate that Apple’s computer unit volume has finally shown the influence of the economic downturn.
That said, although it is entirely possible Windows is making a comeback, it bears remembering that Net Applications can be quite cyclical, showing significant month to month jockeying while tracking consistent growth for OS X.
IE gains at Safari’s expense
As you can see from the data and chart below, both Firefox and Chrome managed to maintain positive growth momentum even though Internet Explorer recovered somewhat. All of that growth came at the expense of Safari and, to a lesser extent, the already moribund Netscape.
01 Internet Explorer—68.17 percent (67.55 percent)
02 Firefox—21.96 (21.53)
03 Safari—7.42 (8.29)
04 Chrome—1.16 (1.12)
05 Opera—0.70 (0.70)See also: Analysis: Safari 4 lifts Apple above 10% browser market share, TGDaily
Given past variability in Net Applications’ monthly data, I’m betting both the OS and browser for February represent a correction in the long term trend, which will continue positively for Apple and its zeitgeist defining devices…
What’s your take?
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March 2nd, 2009
want to know why?
Because Mac fans that have iphones and the touch now surf a lot more in the mobile devices.
I’m a PC user with a touch and I always pick up my touch to surf most of the time now.
I love this thing.