Mac OS X install base grows to over 13% in US, 6% worldwide

“The release of Mac OS X Lion has helped Apple grow its share of the PC install base to nearly 13.5% in the U.S. and more than 6% worldwide, according to new statistics,” Chris Smith reports for AppleInsider.

“The latest tracking data from NetMarketShare shows Mac OS X has been steadily climbing the global charts, seeing its share rise from 5.60% in May to 5.67% and 5.96%, in June and July, respectively,” Smith reports. “By the end of last month, it had reached 6.03% worldwide and 13.42% in the United States.”

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Smith reports, “Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple’s latest desktop operating system that started selling on July 20, already accounts for 1.03% share of the overall market compared to 1.17% for Leopard and 3.46% for Snow Leopard.”

Read more in the full article here.
 

30 Comments

    1. Soon we will be looking at 20% in the US ….. Many Vista Machines are going down now and will be replaced with a Mac …. and the older XP Machines are dying daily as well ….

      Takes times but Apple is now building very strongly on their existing Customer base ….. And they always have but the base is getting larger and larger and growing faster and faster ….

      One big help was Vista and the iPhone of course and iPad too but now you have the Air invading Window space, as well ….. And the look and style of the machines blow away most people and they associate their iPhone of iPad experience and off they go to the Apple Store ….

    2. iOS is OS X stripped down discarding things that the iPod, iPhone, AppleTV and iPad don’t require at this time. These suck ups may not want to count them. But the PC box makers are counting them. Apple devices are ripping the heart out on their low end PC box sales. The CEO clearly blame iOS devices for their mass defection from their OS. Even Steve Ballmer called the Apple iOS devices like the iPad computers.

      So, count or don’t count the iOS devices as part of the OS X market share. In the end, Apple’s market share is grossly under counted. However, reality is reality and Apple is rapidly winning this game and won most of the battles.

  1. Given the iOS + Mac OS combined rate of growth, Apple would not take too many years before they own a majority of some national market segments.

    I’ve never seen growth rates like Apple is achieving.

    A consumer’s perspective: The press and market surveys don’t seem to “see” (maybe ask for) consumer opinion on their dislike of Windows & propensity to switch if & when they can.

    People tolerate Windows, but many still dislike/hate it.

    Give an average 20something a choice today and you know what he is going to choose.

    Thus when MDN & others refer to the “Expected Microsoft Windows X” market share in 20xx, I think they seriously miss the consumer mindset against BSOD’s, wireless issues, corruption w/viruses, etc. They are a nightmare at times.

    I don’t know how Microsoft overcomes the animosity, unless they break it into 2-3 companies and change the names: MSOS, MSMobile, MSApps.

    1. You say that Apple has growth potential like it was the most natural thing in the world and it would appear to be so. However the Wall Street suits continue to question whether Apple has any growth potential at all and are managing to hold down Apple’s share price on that point. I’m rather confused that Wall Street doesn’t seem to see this future growth for Apple when in theory Apple has the whole Windows domain to ravage or at least get parity with. Aside from IT diehards and Wintards, there doesn’t seem to be that much resistance to using Apple products from the consumer end.

      I wonder what it would take to convince the Wall Street pricks that Apple has plenty of room to grow even in the desktop market space.

      1. Nobody “holds down” the price of Apple stock, not even the Wall Street pricks. Apple’s stock price is a function of many things, including how many people want to buy it.

        I agree that the stock price is a bargain, so that’s why I’m long AAPL.

  2. It’g good news and good progress. Until that monopoly in business that MS has enjoyed and continue to cultivate, Apple may never break that 20% barrier or go any higher. You bet your butt that MS will be happy to blow their wads of billions upon billions of pay off to keep that automatic revenue stream running.

    1. Would someone please explain to me how Steve Ballmer can say that Microsoft is selling ever more copies of Windows every quarter and yet Windows PC sales are as limp as a wet noodle? Where are all these Windows sales coming from? It can’t be Windows OEM sales because both the Windows desktop and netbook platforms are in a state of decline. That is an easily documented fact as reported by Windows computer vendors. Are consumers just buying retail copies of Windows to put on older computers? It can’t be corporations because most of them have desktop computer purchases on hold while they’re tinkering around with smartphones and tablets for employees.

      If Ballmer says that Microsoft Windows sales are increasing at next quarter’s finance announcement, I’m going to demand that he explain how Microsoft can keep selling more copies of Windows in a slumping Windows PC market place. I’m sure that Microsoft is selling MS Office upgrades, but I doubt that there are lots of new consumers users buying Microsoft Office for Windows.

        1. Exactly. People need to realize that MS has a lock in the corporate world. Run by MS loving CIO/IT/CFO people. They will always choose MS until they die. No matter how unsecured that POS is or the stupid upgrade cycle to help Office Sales from stagnating.

        2. I’m not sure its a love of MS that keeps them entrenched, really its the enterprise focus they have. When you look at what office.is capable of doing and then all the software they sell that is made to tie into office it really is a hard system to beat.

          Add in MS’s support and it is not only hard to find a competing platform overall but its hard to take the risk with critical systems in the hands of another company. MS is a lot of things, some horribly wrong and backwards but they get the needs of enterprise computing and they work hard to deliver in that market.

          A couple years ago we found an issue with windows XP and a certain internal enterprise application we use. Service pack 3 made a change that caused our software to randomly drop connections and lockup. Instead of telling us to “wait for the next version”, “change your code” or “sorry thats life” they sent us a patch for the OS tailored specifically for our enviroment. Saved us a ton of time and money.

          Where are we going find support like that? Redhat has been that good to us but we are not about to deploy linux on our desktops because redhat does not take the enterprise desktop seriously.

          We have deployed more macs recently but we go through a 3rd party for support. Apple really doesen’t put out the “we’ll be there for you vibe”

          We are moving forward with ipad deployments too. We piloted them for almost a year and the certification process is done. We are pushing out a couple thousand in the next 2 months.

        3. That’s the very issue. Your so entrenched that even a stupid goof up of MS is not seen as a huge productivity lost. Instead the MS patch for their stupidity is seen as a heroic action! Yet when there is a minor hiccup with a Mac or two, the CIO/IT and drones are practically screaming down the halls saying “we told you Macs are not good for business use”. Shutting down and patching thousands of PC for weeks causes nothing but a whimper, yet a couple of Macs with an issue practically causes a lynching from IT drones. LOLI see that scenario often.

      1. I just was informed Friday that my office is rolling out some instant message app from MS… I forget the name. But it’s version R1… Which was released in 2007!

        Wtf!…
        Ms has such a hold on the business IT sector it’s not even funny. Them amd rim also.. People like me are stuck in 2007.

        Sad when half out office whips out iPhones or crapdroid phones to get anything done, or communicate.

        Apple needs to target not only the consumer like they do, but please start showing “IT” that windows SUCKS.

        Then again.. Most of IT would be out of a job if apple pushed it’s way into business.

        If only they let me plug in my MBP to the network at work.. I could do my job in half the time. And write scripts to automate my job… (we have 3 programs to do NOT talk.. I have to input the same shit 3 times in 3 different java apps.. Stuck in the stone age at work)

    2. That will be a tough nut to crack but eventually it might happen.

      I was at a meeting recently where we were discussing making all of our enterprise applications ipad friendly.

      1. the IPad is the entre into enterprise. Cheaper more mobile technology is the holy grail of enterprise and Apple is showing a keen focus in delivering products that far exceed anything from the wintel group.

        1. Absolutely.

          I think for us the big change in the next 5 years will be a transition to more mobile devices and on the desktop we’ll be moving to more thin clients.

          There is a large cost in the traditional thick client and it is not always needed anymore.

  3. Apple yearly (not monthly) growth in US and Asia by their figures are growing at astonishing rates year over year.

    AppleInsider notes referred to the “total” market %, which is does not reflect the Apple sales growth rate which is variously from the supermajority 2 digit % to the 3 digit % level year over year.

  4. OS X – 6% – zero viruses
    Linux – 2.07% – some viruses

    What’s the deal with people saying no one’s interested in writing Mac viruses b/c of low share?

    – There are several proof-of-concepts.
    – There is some malware, where you have to type-in your password or at least blindly hit “OK.”
    – There are several vulnerabilities, but – oh wait, you have to have physical access to the machine for them to work. (and they get patched regularly anyway)
    – There is an OS X hack tool or whatever, but we never hear about anyone using it.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
    According to this, OS X = 7%

  5. As we have been told, Mac market share is a “rounding error” and 95% of people “chose” windows.

    So let’s make sure microsoft’s boad/shareholders remember there’s nothing to worry about and they should “stay the course.”

  6. 13% in the USA now, eh?

    Well, I’ve still never found a good statistic for Home vs Enterprise, but if we assume a 50%-50% split … along with that “Macs are Banned from the Workplace” bit, this would mean that roughly 1 in 4 home PCs are Macs.

    -hh

    1. You may be close to correct. I have been amazed in the last 2 years of hearing people who have gone Apple in the home. Seeing the boxes out for trash, I’d guess that rate is pretty close to my neighborhood street.

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