As MacDailyNews reported this weekend (please see related articles below), Aliso Viejo, CA-based Net Applications announced November 2007 Operating System (and Browser) usage stats. With a new, enhanced marketshare site, Net Applications is now able to analyze global marketshare trends in much greater depth.
Net Applications now tracks more trends, summarizes OS versions better, and are now able to view market share by continent, country and even by state/province. Their new Mac OS usage map for the US provided “an immediate visual impact,” Net Applications ask in their December 1st Newsletter.
Net Applications writes, “Higher percentage Mac usage states almost perfectly match up with states that typically vote for Democrats. So, do Democrats prefer Macs? The correlation is striking.”
2004 US presidential election results by state:
(red=Republican, blue=Democrat)
2004 US presidential election results by county:
(red=Republican, blue=Democrat)
Meanwhile, the Mac continues to gain ground in Net Applications measurements of online share. November 2007 usage statistics show that globally, 6.8% of all computers online are Macs. That is the highest percentage Net Applications has seen to date.
More info via Net Applications’ report – “Democrats Vote for the Mac?” – here.
MacDailyNews Note: For what it’s worth:
Apple’s U.S. Retail Store Locations:
Also, via Wikipedia:
Prior to the 2000 presidential election, there was no universally recognized color scheme to represent political parties in the USA. The practice of using colors to represent parties on electoral maps dates back at least as far as the 1950s, when such a format was employed within the Hammond series of historical atlases. Color-based schemes became more widespread with the adoption of color television in the 1960s and nearly ubiquitous with the advent of color in newspapers. A three-color scheme — red, white and blue, the colors of the U.S. flag — makes sense, and the third color, white, is useful in depicting maps showing states that are “undecided” in the polls and in election-night television coverage.
Early on, the most common—though again, not universal—color scheme was to use red for Democrats and blue for Republicans. This was the color scheme employed by NBC—David Brinkley famously referred to the 1984 map showing Reagan’s 49-state landslide as a “sea of blue”, but this color scheme was also employed by most newsmagazines. CBS during this same period, however, used the opposite scheme—blue for Democrats, red for Republicans. ABC was less consistent than its elder network brothers; in at least two presidential elections during this time before the emergence of cable news outlets, ABC used yellow for one major party and blue for the other. As late as 1996, there was still no universal association of one color with one party. If anything, the majority of outlets in 1996 were using blue for the GOP and red for the Democrats.[citation needed]
But in 2000, for the first time, all major electronic media outlets used the same colors for each party: Red for Republicans, blue for Democrats. Partly as a result of this near-universal color-coding, the terms Red States and Blue States entered popular usage in the weeks following the 2000 presidential election…
The choice of colors in this divide is counter-intuitive to many international observers, as throughout the world, red is commonly the designated color for parties representing labor, socialist, and/or liberal interests, which in the United States would be more closely correlated with the Democratic Party. Similarly, blue is used in these countries to depict conservative parties which in the case of the United States would be a color more suitable for the Republicans.
More here.
The verbal equivalent of
• Pull pin
• Drop grenade
• See what happens…..
Oooooh, click-bait!
Speaking as a Brit, I’m going to get some popcorn and wait to see how this one turns out.
I am a fiscal conservative and a social it’s none of my business. Maybe I am a libertarian and I don’t know it yet?
I prefer macs because they save me money in the long run and the UI is intuitive.
There is another correlation to be considered. Those “blue” states also have higher levels of income and education than the “red” states.
It strikes me as ironic that conservative, Republican leaning states are called Reds.
It think that it has probably more to do with personal income than political preferences, though both are also related.
Yeah like there’s such a difference between to the two party’s.
Pick your poison America.
Hmm..
Mom: Democrat, mac
Dad: BIG democrat, PC
Brother1: Republican, PC
Brother2: Democrat, PC
Me: Independent, mac
Wife: Democrat, mac
Based on my small study, I see no correlation between Democrats and Mac use.
HOWEVER, I think you might find a correlation between mac users and wealth… and I think someone did this study once. If you look on that map, the richer states use macs more than the poorer states. It just so happens that poor states usually vote Republican.
In brief –> Mac user : wealth : Democrat
Whenever you see a Democrat using a Mac, you know right away that this is the only thing they actually do understand.
Actually it reflects percentage of population usage. States with large metro areas are going to have larger percentages of users than more rural states. It has nothing to do with politics, it has everything to do with where the most people live.
Maybe the Republican in me likes macs because they save me money and the Democrat in me like macs because they are beautiful and easy?
Why do we have to be one or the other?
Injecting political affiliation into the discussion of who’s using Macs is a worthless effort. With few exceptions Mac usage density parallels population density, and the location of Apple Stores.
MDN must be hard up for real news to resort to this kind of nonsensical fluff.
Gee, Librium. Try joining the Proofreading Party. You could use the initiation rites. (And DO keep being so very cynical about everything in life; it makes you appear to be so very much better than you really are.)
Dont’ be an idiot. The state by state distribution of welfare, taxes, and alcoholism rates look very similar.
It’s tough having a red govenor in a blue state, but we are much the better for it!
Gregg,
Thanks for injecting some sense into this nonsense.
Smart people prefer macs.
All are welcome!!!!
red blue
its all green
I think Mac users are younger…and Younger people tend to be more liberal than their older counterparts.
So in that way…I guess there could be a connection.
I’m the small dot on the far bottom left. The truth is I’m far right. I’m soon to be 75. iPhones rule.
Pat Buchanan for Prez.
This will easily become a 200+ post thread by day’s end.
Gregg Thurman,
Before you ignorantly criticize, click the link provided: Net Applications, not MacDailyNews, drew the correlation and posed the question, “Do Democrats prefer Apple Macs?”
@ Gregg: Right on!
Although it doesn’t bother me that MDN brought this to our attention. I saw it yesterday and want to comment to Net Applications.
What concerns me is that Net Applications is willing to make this extremely wild speculation of some sort of correlation based on one guy’s mindset. Net Applications should be ashamed of itself published such amateurish dribble. I guess they’re only good at reporting numbers counted up by software, not at doing real analysis.
That’s a lot of red!
http://www.joinrudy2008.com/
“Oooooh, click-bait!
Speaking as a Brit, I’m going to get some popcorn and wait to see how this one turns out.”
This is going to be FUN! I am going to open a beer can too
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That is the way it should be. Democrats are pro-education. Macs are also pro-education.
Most of the people who I know of that use macs are Democrat.
Also, the most politically active and powerful people on campus use macs.