“As even the casual Apple-watcher knows, there are many different metrics for measuring Mac market share these days, and they often don’t match up. Browser stats, sales figures, notebooks versus desktops—it can all get a little muddy after a while. Here, we try to analyze these different statistics to get a bigger picture of what’s really going on with the long-time underdog of the PC world,” Jacqui Cheng reports for Ars Technica.

“‘Over the last several years [Apple] has captured a lot of mindshare, and now it’s directly translating into market share,’ Michael Gartenberg, formerly Research Director at Jupiter Research and now VP of Strategy and Analysis at Interpret, LLC, explained to Ars. He said that both browser numbers and sales figures are important to consider, but for different reasons,” Cheng reports.

“‘Browser share numbers show what people are doing with these machines and how they’re using them,’ Gartenberg said. ‘You often find that, if you look at other usage numbers, Apple’s customers are more sophisticated in using their computers in digital media than Windows users… When you look at browsing statistics, you tend to see a bit of disproportional share of the market, but it’s indicative of how Apple users are using their products,’” Cheng reports.

Cheng reports, “Because of this, sales figures trump browser stats at the end of the day, Gartenberg noted, though no one should be upset that Apple managed to move down a spot last quarter thanks to Acer’s soaring netbook sales. ‘Looking at Apple’s numbers, it was actually Apple’s best quarter, which is pretty telling, especially in a recession,’ he said… ‘The company is executing well in an economic downturn,’ Gartenberg said. ‘All it has to do is keep up the momentum and it will continue to succeed.’”

There’s much more in the full article – recommended – here.