Did Apple users “take February off?” :-)
I just saw this Internet usage report in CNET, which uses Net Applications data for operating systems on the Internet in February. CNET reported a decline in MacOs usage in February, to 9.71%, from 9.93% in January. Since I just ran my “February stats” today for my little Web site, I thought that I would take a look at MacOS users… and Windows users, too!
I noticed that MacOS users who visited my site dipped from 14.63% in January to 13.64% in February. My first visual image was of Macintosh users with their toes in the sand on warm tropical beaches, holding “umbrella drinks” during February! 
It is still a nice image. However, since there is a certain, LARGE, “undetermined” OS fraction in the stats that I receive, I can speak only for the “determined” ones, and compare their percentages. Admittedly, this is not the “whole picture.”
I also thought about the Net Applications stats. Now THIS baby (very cool!) requires a much closer look than I have time to give it right now! The cool thing about percentages, of course, is “percentages of WHAT?” Is the number of total Internet users going up or down? (You bet!) Are people trading in their Macs for PCs? (Dream on! ) Is the economic downturn affecting sales of Macs and PCs (running Windows) equally? (I doubt it!) Is the decline in MacOS users that Net Applications reports for February statistically significant (something that I used to think about A LOT when I did science for a living)? I will assume that Net Applications knows how to do stats, even though I have had VERY large corporate customers who did not. As I said, I have not had time to review their report yet.
One of the things that I “like” about the CNET article, besides the blaring headline, is the emphasis on “spikes” in Windows 7 usage, by per cent, when stats for the other types of Windows usage are not presented. There is just this big blue block of “Windows” users in the CNET article.
I thought that I would “break down” the Windows users for traffic to my OWN site in February: Windows XP 26.16%, Windows Vista 6.45% , Windows NT 5.2 (Does anyone know whether this OS is even Y2K compliant? 2.48%, WinVI 2.42%, Windows 2000 0.67%, and all other Windows (and there are a lot) <0.1% each.
Anyway, that is how I see my tiny little piece of the Net. As for all of the percentages, I have to take them with a grain of salt anyway, because I know how percentages work. I am still not sure whether CNET’s headline is justified, statistically.
I just keep going back to that mental image of Mac users, on beaches sipping umbrella drinks, and occasionally looking over to their iPhones to see if they got any text messages or email… heck, the messages can wait…. (Not a bad way to wait out the recession….)
Peter, do you see any of them over on Maui?
Aloha!
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
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