14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to market share, it is no secret that Macs have quite a small one. Despite Apple's record sales numbers and all the people new to the platform, growth is relative and the market share has not seen giant leaps. But that does not mean that it is not growing.
Recent statistics from WebSideStory and rival Net Applications have shown a steady increase in the number of Macs on the Internet during the past year. Macs have been rather stagnant in such web metrics for many years, hanging around 3 percent. However, last summer, things started picking up, and, in the past eight months, the numbers have almost doubled, to just over 6 percent of all machines in the U.S. that connected to the Web last month. Both PowerPC and Intel Macs were tracked and the number of PowerPC machines on the Web was stable over the past 12 months, meaning that all the growth came from new machines.
This growth is no doubt fueled by the switch to Intel and Apple's very successful ad campaign. The Cupertino Company has previously reported that half of all Macs have been recently sold to customers new to the platform and those new arrivals have started adding up. If Apple's current growth continues and so far it has shown no signs of slowing down, it will quickly become a major force.
Various flavors of Windows and Internet Explorer are still the dominant force on the web, but the scene is changing, even if slowly. If Macs continue to grow this way, it will be harder and harder for Web Site and Applications developers to ignore them and keep catering to the majority.