It's a happy time at Cupertino's One Infinite Loop, the address for Apple Inc. Not only does Apple have popular iPhone and iPod product lines, but a new study shows that its Mac computers are gaining market share among Web users.
According to a report issued Monday by market researcher Net Applications, the Mac's worldwide market share among Web users increased to 6.6 percent in September, compared to 4.7 percent a year ago -- a 40 percent increase. This compares with 6.15 percent in the previous month.
Vincent Vizzaccaro, executive vice president at Net Applications, said that the market share was not installed base, but the usage base on the Net. He added that about 500,000 sites have his company's tracking code installed, and the data  has been extrapolated from about a billion monthly page views on those sites.
Windows Still 91 Percent
About half of the market share in the Net Applications data consists of users running Apple's OSX on the older, PowerPC-based machines, and the other half on newer Intel -based Macs.
Some observers note that the huge success of the iPod and the iPhone is having a spillover effect. There have been predictions for months that those successes would introduce consumers to Apple's famed easy-to-use interfaces and would eventually result in some users becoming Mac buyers.
These new gains do not threaten Windows dominance. The report noted that 91 percent of machines had Windows operating systems, although this was down three percent from a year ago. Vista, the successor to Windows' venerable XP, held about 7.4 percent of that total, with XP having about 79 percent. There were also fractions of a percent each for Windows 2000, 98, NT, and ME.
Apple's Safari browser is also going up in terms of market share, with about 5.07 percent of users in September, compared to about 3.53 percent a year ago, according to Net Applications. Microsoft 's Internet Explorer is still the kingpin, at 77.86 percent, while the open-source Firefox is second at 14.88 percent. Opera, Netscape, and others each were less than a point.
15 Percent in Five Years?
Samir Bhavnani, a Research Director with Current Analysis West, said that he wasn't surprised at the increased market share, as he had noticed that people asking his opinion about buying computers had increasingly been including Macs as a possibility.
But, he said, Macs are still at the "higher end of price points," which is going to limit the degree to which the computers will be considered by mainstream users. "To move the needle up," he added, "they're going to have to come out with something more price-competitive."
Even without a price cut, Apple could see another boost in market share following the launch of its Leopard update to OS X later this month. Bhavnani said that he expected Apple will introduce new laptops then, which could also drive sales. When asked what market share for Macs in five years would not surprise him, Bhavnani said 15 percent.
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