Apple, I am betting is going to have a good if not great 2006. The reason I say that is because the company did rather well in 2005. While most of the world focused on the booming sales of iPod, Apple’s core business of selling computers also had a record year. Market Share website shows some really revealing data on Apple’s improved fortunes in 2005.
From January 2005 to December 2005, the web users using Mac OS-X increased from 3.41% to 4.35%. (Windows XP kept taking market share away from older Windows versions – 2000, 98, and ME). In the browser category, Safari users went from 1.66% to 3.07%, nearly doubling their user base. These two metrics when taken together show that Apple’s user base might be on an upswing. In the browser arena, Firefox started 2005 with 5.59% and ended the year with 9.57%; taking market share away from IE, which showed a downward trend.
Other highlights of 2005:
1. Google’s share of the search market increased from 39.68% to 48.09%.
2. Yahoo’s Mojo may not be translating into search market share. Yahoo websites total went down from 17.28% in January 2005 to 13.02%.
3. MSN had similar issues as well.
How they collect data: … from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on demand network of small to medium enterprise live stats customers. The sample size for these sites is more than 40,000 urls and growing….
I think the “halo effect” of the iPod is amazing. I was never a big Apple fan until I got the iPod. Now I’m seriously considering getting a Mac.
well, that would make you the polar opposite of russell beattie who has left our ranks and gone to the “mainstream”
I did buy a mac this year (first time) and find that its not flawless (was decieved by everything apple – ads, blogs and fans, out there 🙂 )
Apple as a company is worse than MS (in matters of what people accuse MS of). Of course they have their strengths (design, package, fanbase). What’s interesting to me is how close Apple will come to being MS this year (if they hope to be popular). Popular as in a lot of marketshare coz that was the basis of Om’s analysis here 🙂
I think Apple will always be hip because of it’s product design and ease of use. Every product they come up with is an innovation.
But I think Google has seriously lost it’s plot. I see Yahoo! adapting to the new world of www use, feeds, APIs and so on. Google hasn’t. I’ve started using Wink more often now, and I think sites like these (Wink, Zniff, etc) would be the future of search. E.g. Here are some search results from Google and Wink, which one has more interesting links? I searched for “coke”.
From Google: http://sixco.ws/1w
(I shortened the link)
From Wink: http://www.wink.com/coke
Which would you use for new site discovery?
2005 proved that google algorithms are not so smart as you think they are getting beaten left right and center. As a last resort google seems to be using “Surf Monkeys” to undo work of “Link Monkeys”!!!!
It’s humans Vs. humans baby…. Do you understand what this means?
Google actually went from 48ish to 58ish. You didn’t include Google UK and Canada. (I know there are other google national sites as well. When I was in sydney, hitting google.com redirected me to google.com.au. I suspect a large chunk of the ‘other’ category are various google sites as well.
Alan
(no, I don’t work for them, just can’t believe their share is that low. I don’t know anyone who uses anything else, from co-workers, to grandparents)