After taking a brief October dip in advance of Leopard’s release, Apple’s (AAPL) share of the operating system market grew 3.34% in November to hit a record 6.81%, according to the results of a Net Applications survey issued today.
Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows in its various flavors continues to dominate with a 92.42% share, as measured by the Web metrics firm. Among the operating systems gathered in the “other” category are Linux (.57%), Apple’s iPhone (.09%), Sony’s Playstation (.02%), SunOS (.01%) and Nintendo’s Wii (.01%).
Net Applications’ monthly surveys do not measure market share in terms of computer systems sold. Rather, they sample data from visitors to some 40,000 websites operated by their clients. As such, their findings are probably better described as a snapshot of installed base taken from a less than random sample. But they do reflect market share trends, and it’s always interesting to compare their results with those from firms like Gartner and IDC, which track quarterly shipments.
Net Applications’ October report, for example, showed Apple with a 6.61% market share. A couple weeks earlier, IDC had calculated Apple’s domestic market share in terms of units shipped in the 3rd quarter at 6.3% while Gartner’s estimate for the same period came in at 8.1%. (link)
Net Applications’ November results are summarized in the table below:
