Microsoft (MSFT) Windows continued its downward drift and Apple’s (AAPL) Mac OS X inched up to a record 7.95% in the market share survey issued Tuesday by Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Net Applications.

The biggest gain, however, was recorded by the open-source operating system Linux, which jumped more than 16% in June — albeit from a small base — to hit 0.79%.

The iPhone held steady at 0.16%, reflecting a leveling off of what had been double-digit growth as buyers waited for the new iPhone 3G, which goes on sale next week. In a separate survey issued Monday, RBC Capital reported “unprecedented pent-up demand” for the new model. Data taken from 3,600 members in RBC’s Technology Adoption Panel in early June showed that 56% of those planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days planned to buy an iPhone — up from 35% in March and more than double the interest in any of the other brands surveyed. See here for more detail.

The monthly Net Applications survey is conducted by sampling browser data from some 160 million visits to websites operated by the firm’s clients. Although it describes the results as “market share,” Net Applications does not actually measure share of market in the traditional sense by revenue or unit sales. It does, however, provide a consistent methodology by which to measure operating system trends.

To see their July 1 report, click here. The results are summarized in the table below




Graphs and more info: click! http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/200...cations-survey/

My BIL and I both were wishing that we had enough money to buy stock in Apple when we found out that Jobs was returning to the fold. At the time, we both had our hands too full to spare enough to buy a significant amount. Of course, I was offered a chance to buy Wal-Mart stock before it went public and decided to buy a motorcycle instead. The bank was willing to loan for the bike, but I doubt buying WM stock would have been considered favorably back then.

Everytime my machine freezes, I seriously think about buying a Mac.
A good friend of mine bought one years ago, tried to convince me to go Apple instead of Windows... He hardly ever has problems, and when he does, he can easily find answers on the various forums he visited.

I have always felt that if apple were to dump its insistance on selling hardware and just sold the OS, they would bury Microsoft.

I disagree Al. I think Apple's products work so well is because they control both the hardware AND software.

In the past, it was important to have control of the hardware to make the software work as desired. And where Apple used a separate chip set design, it was good. They did have authorized manufacturers, but it was never more than a niche market. Now that Apple is on a roll, and they are using the same processor that Window uses, it would be interesting to see other manufacturers authorized to use OSX. However, I have found that a lot of the issues that exists on many of the Window machines, have to do with bundled programs that are buggy.

If I were to make a call on this, Apple should offer OSX without any real roadblocks for installing on any Windows machine. Do not allow the manufacturers to pre-install, but any manufacturer can sell computers without installed software. It may even cause a trend towards selling computers without a system so that the individual has more of a choice.

While its certainly easier if you have the hardware and software, it can be done with a little effort.

Novell proved that; their servers ran on Ring 0 on all kinds of different hardware, but the hardware had to be tested and certified.

So it can be done. It just takes a bit of effort. And if Apple were to do that, they would gain tremendous market share.

Otherwise, they will remain on the sidelines.

I think Apple's point is to not let go of the hardware - One of their strong points is the "experience" of opening the box and setting the thing up. How simple, how elegant it is.

It's part of what creates the cult following. For those of you that have never bought an Apple product, you have no idea what I'm talking about. For those who have - you know exactly.

The only product I think comes close is the Nintendo Wii.

The really important thing is to not let the IT people get hold of a computer. They screw up more things then they improve. I just got a new work computer. It is obsolete out of the box, with the processor design being retired this month. I am not allowed a DVDR, or more than 40 GB of memory. And I won't go into the software restrictions and deletions. As irritating that this might be, my old computer is going to be recycled to a lower level user. That's who I feel for.

The reason they do this is because most business users are very light users of technology - word processing, email, maybe a few spreadsheets, but also they are very heavy users of tech support. The more they can keep your computer simple, and consistent, the cheaper it is to support.

Our organization is so concerned about security weaknesses that they have tightened everything down so tight that nothing works.

But it is secure!

Apple and ATT took a beating today. Poor planning on today's launch...

It was not so much dropping the ball as being overwhelmed. The reports are that the demand was much more than for the original iPhone and the iTunes servers could not keep up. One report from Britain was of a techie that bought one of the first five iPhone in Britain initially. In buying the gen 2, the increase in buyers was a over a hundred fold. This despite the complaints about the new service plans.

Even more interesting is that most of the buyers do not seem too upset about the delays.