Mac OS X approaches 8 percent market share

http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/07/01/mac-os-x-approaches-8-percent-market-share-in-june

by parenthesis • 18 years ago

24 23 18 years ago

Wasn't it around 3% for a long, long time? That's an impressive jump. I wonder how much is because of Apple and how much is people avoiding Vista?

eugenejen2• 18 years ago

It actually makes no difference. Competitors fight for money in a market. Whoever makes less mistake then grabs more gold. It feels like baseball games between Red Sox and Yankees. But this game will never ends until PC fades.

We should cross check market share change of Linux Desktop at the same time. I think due to Vista's snafu, both Linux Desktop and OS X gain market shares. But it seems OS X grabs much more than Linux Desktop does.

iron_ball• 18 years ago

And that's totally bizarre, because I've seen people wearing Linux-branded portable music players everywhere, and I've seen Linux distro logos in major motions pictures and even Metal Gear Solid 4. Given Linux's all-encompassing focus on making their software beautiful and easy to use, and their extensive TV and print ad campaigns, I'm amazed we haven't seen a major uptick in installs.

Tamerlin• 18 years ago

It wasn't really a jump. Apple's market share has been growing more or less steadily since the switch to Intel. IMO I don't think that Vista has had much of an effect on mac sales; it's primary competitor has been XP.

All else aside, I'm sure that a significant factor has been the fact that you can run software for Windows on an Intel-based mac without emulation overhead.

Another factor that I'm sure hasn't hurt is that after the transition to Intel systems, the macs reached something close to price parity with the Windows OEM's. In some cases, the mac ends up being the less expensive option (specifically, the Xeon-based rigs), which is also new territory for Apple.

st3fan2• 18 years ago

Can we throw a huge world-wide party when 'we' reach 10%? I will personally buy a crate of champagne to share with people in the Toronto area ;)

halo• 18 years ago

I don't think I'll ever understand this. Unless you own shares, one company's success over another isn't really anything worth celebrating. This isn't a good vs. evil situation no matter how much some people want to paint it that way.

Personally, I'm just happy that I can use any of the 3 major OSes these days without a problem, which is largely thanks to FireFox eating IE's marketshare on Windows.

jobeirne• 18 years ago

It's analogous to seeing a really brilliant friend experience deserved, widespread success. It's a satisfying feeling to see earned triumph in any circumstance.

cstejerean• 18 years ago

If you're an OS X user it is worth celebrating. Increased market share means more companies start paying attention to OS X which means more games, more software, better support and more employers starting to support/allow Macs.

mechanical_fish• 18 years ago

It's an excuse to hold a worldwide party! What is there to understand? ;)

figurefaster• 18 years ago

Generally this is a good rule halo. But Mac OS X is a big exception.

5 years ago I predicted that MS would be gone and OS X would be the only widely available user friendly operating system (of course, the various Unix derivatives are going to survive and be healthy, but niche, players for many decades to come.. in fact Mac OS X is built on one of them, Mach 3 Unix, and is dependent on this programmer base for it's depth and stability).

I was obviously wrong in that prediction but "better late than never".

notauser• 18 years ago

'Operating systems that aren't Windows' are already at 10% if you count Linux.

(Which you probably should - the benefit is the end of monoculture, not the promotion of a new replacement monopoly.)

Hexstream2• 18 years ago

Soon we'll see whether or not Apple gets viruses proportional to its marketshare. This old, tired debate has been going on for way too long.

nailer• 18 years ago

Apple doesn't get viruses proportional to its marketshare at present. Neither do most Linux distros.

In terms of majority market share, it's already been proven bunk for server software by Linux and Apache.

gojomo• 18 years ago

I remember when Apple "approached" an 8 percent share from the other direction. :(

Mac OS X approaches 8 percent market share

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