“Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system has been steadily gaining market share since its release earlier this year, and is on pace to overtake usage of Mac OS X within the next few months, according to a study published Tuesday by research firm NetApplications,” Kevin McLaughlin reports for CMP Channel.
MacDailyNews Take: Who needs a study? Look at PC sales, realize that the vast majority of the boxes come preloaded with Vista, then look at Mac sales, and you’re done. There are some 23 million Mac OS X installs today. IDC says all vendors shipped over 58 million PCs worldwide in Q2 07 (Apple shipped just over 1.5 million Macs). Vista is not “on pace to overtake usage of Mac OS X.” Vista shipments overtook Mac OS X long ago.
McLaughlin continues, “In February, Mac OS X’s market share stood at 6.38 percent, while Vista — which launched Jan. 30 — stood at just 0.93 percent. But in June, Mac OS X usage had dipped to 6 percent, while Vista usage had jumped to 4.52 percent, according to the study.”
MacDailyNews Take: NetApplications did not do a “study.” They took a snapshot of participating web sites and recorded the OS used. It’s not a measure of market share, which is a percentage of units sold vs. total units sold, it’s a measure of which OS was used to visit a selection of web sites. Nobody has the “true” market share figures, anyway; not IDC, not Gartner, nobody. They all just have market share figures for the markets they measure – what about the whitebox market, for example? They’re all just estimates. What’s important are the trends measured: Is Apple Mac gaining based on what IDC and Gartner measure? Yes, it is.
McLaughlin continues, “Many solution providers say their customers still don’t see the business benefits of adopting Vista, and have avoided migrating to the next generation OS until application and hardware compatibility issues are addressed. Many VARs believe this will happen when Microsoft releases Vista service pack 1 later this year.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, yeah? “Microsoft has apparently told executives at one of the world’s largest PC makers not to expect a formal release of Windows Vista SP1 — the first major set of upgrades and bug fixes to its Vista operating system — until 2009 at the earliest,” ValleyWag is reporting today. [Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “RadDoc.”]
McLaughlin continues, “Industry giants have also recently raised the yellow flag on Vista adoption. Earlier this month, a Dell Europe executive said the company was ‘stepping back’ from telling people they must upgrade to Vista. And on Monday, Acer president Gianfranco Lanci went even further in describing the impact Windows Vista has had since its release. ‘The whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista,’ Lanci said in an interview with the German edition of the Financial Times.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, Microsoft’s Windows Vista is a disappointment. Yes, a recent survey showed that 30% of businesses will never upgrade to Windows Vista. Yes, Apple’s Mac OS X is growing at a pace three times faster than the PC industry as a whole. Yes, the vast majority of Windows sufferers have no idea about Mac OS X (they haven’t chosen Windows, they just blindly bought some PC) while the majority of Mac OS X users have used Windows (at work and school) and made the informed choice to use Macs.
By the way, the same sheep-like behavior that propels Windows adoption also helps iPod sales: many people just buy iPod because “everyone else does.” Luckily for them, Apple’s iPod+iTunes is also the best choice, unlike Windows. If people really thought about it, the Mac is clearly the best choice: it’s more secure, more intuitive, more elegant, can run the most software (even Windows, if need be), lasts longer, has higher resale value, etc., etc., etc. Most people just don’t think. Period. Just by thinking at all, Mac users Think Different™. So, the more people that get Macs, the more they will spread the word, and it will snowball; it’s already started.
Regardless, today it’s delusional to imply or pretend that Vista adoption won’t or hasn’t already obliterated Mac OS X adoption. Simple math shows that fact. Apple has miles and miles to go (however those miles can be traveled faster than many might think). Vista and other flavors of Windows can and will have the bottom and middle of the barrel and, as always, it’s Mac OS X that’s the cream on top and it’s getting thicker with each passing day.
Wait, I thought MS had already shipped over 20 million copies months ago…? What gives? Were they <gasp> touting CHANNEL SALE numbers?!?! Say it isn’t so!
Windows=Windows=Windows. It’s the business model, not people clamoring for Vista.
BTW, is the whole net experiencing some sort of attack today, or is it just good ol’ Florida?
“Vista shipments overtook Mac OS X long ago.”
P. T. Barnum was wrong! There’s a sucker born every second.
So, uh, the viral infected PC’s outpace Macs in sales? What else is new? Vista comes with the sale of HP, Gateway, Dell, Sony, Acer, IBM, etc. OS X comes with a Mac. The people who do these studies are f’in morons.
Vista is the best weapon Apple has for encouraging people to switch. Every single friend of mine who was sitting on the fence, and then bought Vista, has now switched. Their experience was horrible.
Apple should sell Vista in their stores with a 90 money back guarantee or something.
Either that or send Balmer a finders fee for every switcher who does so after purchasing Vista.
If Vista reached an arbitrary figure of 10% then stopped and didn’t increase then how successful would it be?
Well, let’s remember that a huge portion of the sales are for corporations where a very small number of IT people control — in a draconian environment — the computers bought. So be nice to that poor unfortunate office-droid using Vista. They had no choice. Vista was foisted on them.
Be sorry for them. Very, very sorry.
Vista rose sales in XPsp2 and Mac OSX. Also many are waiting for the newer iMacs and the next OS installment.
No one seems to take that into account.
What do you expect from a source named C(hu)MP Channel?
There’s a huge difference between adoption and having a baby left on your doorstep.
“IDC says all vendors shipped over 58 million PCs worldwide in Q2 07 (Apple shipped just over 1.5 million Macs)”
You just have to feel so so sorry for al the unfortunates who are forced into buying that god-awful rubbish.
As Vista’s installation numbers climb, it’s likely those users are simply replacing another flavor of Windows on their computers, rather than signaling a stampede of new Windows users hitting the Internet. So Vista’s gains are mostly at the expense of its older relatives.
@ justified (There’s a huge difference between adoption and having a baby left on your
doorstep.)
Well said! That’s one I’ll remember to quote.
Regarding the Net Applications data, a valid review of the data reveals the following:
1) Vista share is all at the expense of 2000 and XP.
2) Mac share is not flat, it’s up 40% over last year.
3) Mac’s share is at the expense of Microsoft’s older OSes (95, 98, and NT).
4) Microsoft has actually lost share in the last year.
It’s all here:
A look at Computerworld’s article on Net Applications’ market share data.
As for Vista’s disappointment, the latest slam from the head of Acer is only the latest:
Acer head blasts Microsoft’s latest.
“There’s a huge difference between adoption and having a baby left on your doorstep.
A baby bag of flaming poop.
@ChrissyOne
Wait, I thought even Leopard had outsold Vista …? What gives? Or was the Amazon list posting <gasp> completely irrelevant? Say it isn’t so.
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard tops Amazon’s best-selling software list
Friday, June 15, 2007 – 08:59 AM EDT
Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard is off to a roaring start! Pre-orders for Leopard and Apple’s upcoming OS sits atop Amazon’s Bestsellers list (updated hourly).
Amazon’s Top 5 Bestsellers – Operating Systems:
1. Apple Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard
2. Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Full Version with SP2
3. Microsoft Windows XP Professional Full Version with SP2
4. Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Full Version [DVD]
5. Apple Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.6 (Mac DVD)
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ChrissyOne” for the heads up.]
hey… why not look at the adoption of MAC OSX on smartphones versus Windows mobile in a few months. despite that 145,000 number AT&T posted for activations… i think itʻs at least 2x as much
Just today I visited my local PC hardware store, a place where I’ve been buying my hard drives and such for years and ever since my Amiga days. I have never seen his small store so full of PC’s!
The owner was in alone and he absolutely loves Vista! Not because of Aero or that Vista does something particularly spectacular but because of all the problems that people are having with it means he has a steady stream of PC’s waiting to be fixed due to Vista trouble.
In other words for our brain cell challenged PC’s trolls like Zune Tang, Microsoft might as well have gone and given him a blank check with all the $$$$ Vista users end up paying him to fix.
Otherwise his general opinion of Vista is that it is total c.r.a.p and a piece of s.h.i.t.
The Amazon list is irrelevant.
The manufacturer of an OS announcing units shipped as if they were units sold is a teeny bit relevant.
Spent the weekend trying to convince my father in law to switch to Mac. He’s going to buy a $599 sh*t-filled laptop from Dell for all the complacent reasons we’ve heard 1000 times.
The unbelievable part is…he KNOWS and EXPECTS trouble out of Vista, but is ready to write that check out to Dell.
Relevant? Maybe not, but I had to vent.
It’s more interesting that some journalist thinks “out-pacing” Mac OS X is an achievement. Five years ago, no one writing about Windows was even mentioning how Mac OS relates to Windows market share. Just goes to show how much attention Apple attracts these days, even from those who choose to put a negative spin on Apple’s advances. Just remember that every small gain in user share achieved by Mac OS X is through an actual thoughtful decision made by the customer. Every gain made by Windows Vista is from a “non-decision” to get what comes by default with the generic PC.
Just remember three absolute rules an you’ll be OK.
1) Statistics that support the fact that Apple is doing well are fair and true no matter what the source is or the methodology for collecting them.
2) Statistics that show somebody else is doing well are completely bogus, made up, based on flawed studies and so on not matter how fairly done the study is, or what the source is.
3) The same source can be both wrong and right at different times, or even at the same time, provided you remember rules 1) and 2)
Lots of verbiage from MDN. We feel your pain as your imaginary world collapses.
Yep, but I see a lot of people everyday that think that Windows is the best, all there is and that’s all there is too it.
That said, most of them, if they get a taste of the Mac, will switch.
Many, many people though are hooked on a cheap $300-$500 Windows type box and there seems no reaching them.