Forrester: Apple nearly quadruples enterprise share
Ben Gray, analyst at Forrester Research, says that Mac OS X accounts for 4.5 percent of the business operating system market, 3¾ times their share in January 2007.
Computerworld notes that all this has happened with one thing notably absent: an enterprise strategy. “I haven’t seen anything from Apple that seems to show it’s attack[ing] the enterprise market,” Gray said.
He says the gains in market share are due to two trends: client virtualization (using software like Parallels or VMWare) and the idea that corporate IT departments are more willing to support a broader range of hardware and software.
“In the end, [IT departments] want their employees to be as productive as humanly possible, so they’ll approve tools that people are more comfortable with,” said Gray.
In related news, Windows’ overall share of the corporate market dipped slightly from 95.6 to 94.9 percent for the same time period. [Via Macworld.]
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iPhone browser share doubled since 3G launch
According to HitsLink, the people who track web usage statistics, iPhone users account for about a third of one percent of web browsers on the Internet, the largest of any mobile platform.
iPhone ranks fourth overall in terms of operating system market share, behind Windows, Mac, and Linux. On August 16, the stats peaked at 0.45 percent. That’s a two-fold increase since the iPhone 3G was released July 11.
Jim Goldman, of business television network CNBC, says that “it’s a key metric that shows market penetration and customer use.” He cited a report by analyst Andy Hargreaves that suggests the increase in browser market share highlights the iPhone’s key, long-term advantages. Well, duh.
“Consumers seem to know what some investors are having trouble grasping — or believing: that Apple might be positioned better in so many key markets than any of its competitors,” Captain Obvious Goldman said.
[Via MacDailyNews]
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We’re number three!
According to a survey from the Gartner group, Apple is again the third largest PC vendor in the United States. The company nosed out Acer for the second-quarter bronze. (Dell is number one, followed by HP in second place.)
Apple shipped 1.4 million units last quarter, 38 percent more than the prior quarter. In the United States, PC shipments overall grew by just 4.2 percent.
IDC research manager David Daoud credited Apple’s competitors with the company’s success, citing consumers’ disappointment with the “lack of innovation” among other PC manufacturers. Also: Windows Vista. ‘Nuff said.
But that’s just the U.S. Apple still lags worldwide, selling only 3.2 percent more units abroad than last quarter. Compare that to other manufacturers, who sold an average of 16 percent more units.
Macs account for nearly 8 percent of internet-connected computers worldwide.
[Via Infoworld.]
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Mac market share nears 8%; Safari tops 6.3%
The Mac accounts for 7.94 percent of computers on the Internet, and Safari is the browser of choice for 6.31 percent of the same audience, so says marketshare.hitslink.com.
This increases Mac users’ worldwide presence by nearly two percent from a year ago. In June 2007, 6.4 percent of the internet used a Mac, and 4.85 percent used Safari.
Charles Jade of Ars Technica also notes that two thirds of Macs in use now feature Intel processors.
The vast majority of the Safari users are Mac users, with only 4.3 percent of Safari users running it under Windows. That’s a ten-fold increase, though, in Safari for Windows users since it was introduced at 2007’s WWDC.
Jade attributes Safari’s gains to the one time Windows “Software Update trick” that placed Safari in the list of apps to update, even if the user didn’t have Safari already installed.
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80% of US businesses have Macs
Computerworld is reporting on the results of a Yankee Group Research report that finds that 80% of US businesses now have Macs. This represents an huge increase from just two years ago when only 47% of businesses reported having Mac users. The Yankee Group estimates that corporate marketshare has risen to 8-10% overall with 21% of firms reporting more than 50 Mac users. Interestingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, 28% are running Windows in virtualization.
While the consumer marketshare (and better yet, profitshare) numbers have looking up for some time now, it’s good to see that Apple is finally starting to gain (or regain) a serious foothold in the corporate sphere as well. It’s no surprise that as more users get acquainted with Apple gear at home that they’re bringing pressure on corporate IT managers to implement Macs at work as well. Things just keep rolling for the bean counters in Cupertino.
[Source: Computerworld]
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