According to a survey put out by the Net Applications, the market share of Mac OS has hit 7.3% in 2007. This is an all-time high for Apple, but of course still pales in comparison to the 91.8% market share enjoyed by Microsoft Windows.
However, the survey does show a trend. While Windows market share is still very high, it consistently lost ground all year while Apple continues to grow. In fact, according to the survey, Windows is the only operating system to see a decrease in market share in the last two months. Both Linux and OS X saw increases. Linux saw a larger net increase for the year than did OS X, however Linux market share continues to be very low (less than 1%).
Windows XP is still, obviously, dominant. Windows Vista still only has 10.43% market share.
There is no doubt that these results are a result of the release of Leopard OS X and the growing popularity of Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu continues to ingratiate itself among Linux fans while remaining simple enough to win some converts to Linux. Leopard enticed a number of new converts to the Mac platform (including your’s truly). The Apple Iphone has also put itself in as a real contender, which has no doubt resulted in a halo effect of people migrating to Apple products.
In 2008, expect both OS X and Linux to see further increases in market share. The Windows franchise is still incredibly strong, however it took a hit with Vista. Techies will continue to get excited about little bumps in Apple market share (so many bloggers use Apple it is unbelievable), however its going to take a LOT more than Leopard to make a sizable dent in Microsoft’s world.

David Risley is the founder of PCMech.com. He is the brains, the thinker, the writer, the nerd.