14 DAY TRIAL // Net Applications figures show a $3.12 increase in market share for Mac web browsing, reaching a record $9.93 of ownership in the market. iPhone net surfing has also increased, according to the Web metrics company, who claims a 9.09 increase for a total 0.48 market share in the period ending January 2009.
However, the iPhone's position in the market is nothing compared to January's winner, the iPod touch, whose “explosive” growth in December continued after the holidays, growing 37.5% to reach a 0.11% Internet share. According to Net Applications, these figures show that more than one out of every 1,000 Web hits in January were made from an iPod touch.
According to the same tracker, Microsoft has lost Internet share for the sixth month in a row, dropping to 88.27 percent, a 0.46% decrease in page views made from a Windows machine, even though Microsoft's OS still dominates both the desktop and the Web with nearly 9 out of 10 page views. However, Windows 7 made some pretty big waves last month. Net Applications recorded very strong showing of Windows 7, although the OS hasn't even been released properly.
“The Windows 7 beta releases in January have led to a spike in usage share … This is an indication of strong interest in Windows 7, since it does not come pre-installed on a computer like Vista. Beta users are taking the time and effort to install it on their home computers, since corporations generally prohibit beta operating systems to be used in production environments,” Net Applications declared.
Net Applications carries out monthly surveys by sampling browser data from around 160 million visits to web sites operated by clients of the firm. Results described as “market shares” don't actually measure share of market in the traditional sense of sales revenue or unit sales, according to Fortune. However, they do provide a good indication as to what the latest trends in web-surfing platforms are, the publication says.