Mac OS X Intel posts significant share gains in October
Apple Computer's Intel-native Mac OS X operating system posted one of its largest share gains during the month of October, according to data released this month by market research firm Net Applications.
According to the data, Mac OS X Intel saw it share rise sharply from a 0.84 percent share in September to a 1.12 percent share during the month of October. Similarly, Mac OS X for PowerPC rose from a 3.88 percent share to 4.09 percent share.
The only other operating systems to increase their share of the OS usage market were Windows XP, which inched up 0.06 percent to 84.62 percent, and Windows Vista (beta), up 0.03 percent to 0.09 percent.
Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, and Linux all reflected slight share loss during the month. Of the five, Windows 2000 saw the largest decline from a 6.08 percent share to a 5.79 percent share.
Apple's Mac OS X Intel share gains underscore the company's extremely successful transition to Intel processors, which began in January and wrapped up during the first half of August.
During Apple's last fiscal quarter ended September, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company said it shipped a total of 1,610,000 Macintosh computers, the most ever during a three-month period in its corporate history.
Net Application's October operating system data would indicate that sales of Macs continued at a record pace during the month, in excess of 600,000 new systems.
Sales are Apple's Intel Macs during the 2006 holiday quarter are expected to best those posted during the December quarter when Apple releases its next set of quarterly results in mid-Janaury.
17 Comments
How the heck is that even possible? Were there that many more PCs than Macs taken out of service last month?
Maybe it's professionals who still need PowerPC apps (e.g. Photoshop), who took advantage of people selling their G5's to buy Mac Pro's.
Edit: No wait, that would make it stay the same. Maybe it's the advertising campaign and the iPod halo effect then. Remember that Apple's store is still selling PowerMac G5s.
Sorry for that, but I have to smile when I see the last graph. From 0% to 1% ... ok, it is "sharply", but ... ahem ... lets say it's still not too much
I think it could be the systems that used to be used for Pro apps at work being sold off and a more conventional user uses it for web stuff more than the previous user. I was one of those people, I bought a dual G5 from a local publishing house for $450 a couple months ago.
If the graph continues exponentially like that we'll have 3% share in January. Let's hope.