Survey: Mac OS hit record 7.3% share in December; iPhone up 33%
Reflecting strong holiday sales of both MacBooks and iPhones, Apple's (AAPL) market share grew sharply in December, as measured by a Net Applications survey released today. — The Mac hit a record 7.3% share, up from 6.8% last month.
Context & Ripple Effects
Net Applications' December web metrics cap a year in which Apple's measured footprint kept climbing: back in October, AppleInsider put U.S. Mac market share at 8.1 percent for Q3, and by early December Computerworld was noting that iPhone browsing share was closing in on 0.1%. The new survey extends that arc, crediting strong holiday MacBook and iPhone sales for pushing Mac OS to a record 7.3% share, up from 6.8% the month before.
The timing matters beyond the number itself: the pickup lands days before Macworld San Francisco, where rumors — unconfirmed — have Apple unveiling a sub-notebook with a MultiTouch trackpad that ships without an internal optical drive. The story also traveled widely for a monthly metrics release, with Ars Technica's Infinite Loop among the outlets picking it up.
First-order effects
- Holiday-quarter MacBook and iPhone demand directly lifts Apple's installed base, moving its web-measured OS share to a record 7.3% and giving AAPL a strong data point heading into the January earnings cycle.
- The iPhone's growing browsing footprint — already approaching 0.1% of web traffic per the earlier coverage — makes Apple a measurable player in mobile web usage, not just device sales.
Second-order effects
- Rising Mac share pressures Microsoft and PC vendors in the premium consumer segment, where switcher purchases rather than first-time buyers appear to be driving the gains.
- A larger measured Mac base raises the stakes for Macworld: any sub-notebook announcement would land on an audience of newly converted users watching whether Apple can extend the momentum into portables.
Third-order effects
- If the holiday pattern holds, web-usage metrics from firms like Net Applications become a standing proxy for platform momentum, shaping analyst narratives and investor expectations between quarterly hardware numbers.
- Sustained share growth would reinforce the halo dynamic in which iPod and iPhone owners treat the Mac as their next purchase, gradually shifting the PC market's center of gravity toward Apple's premium segment.
The trend: Consumer web-usage surveys are turning Mac market share into a monthly-tracked indicator of Apple's switcher-driven expansion beyond its traditional base.