Vista use grows as Mac OS X stays flat…Really?

An article appearing on the NZ Computerworld site by Gregg Keizer Framingham seems to suggest that Vista uptake is outstriping Mac OSX:

“Windows Vista’s share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X — to which Vista has often been compared — has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports.”

Really?

This article is somewhat misleading - looking at the actual figures on the Net Applications website, a number of other trends are also obvious which puts this claim in more perspectice:

1. Windows XP and Windows 2000 usage has fallen by 2-3% in the last quarter (as you might expect).
2. Vista uptake has increased by roughly the same amount.
3. Over the last year, the total Windows share (XP + 2000 + Vista) has remained virtually static at around 90.5%.
4. Over the last year, the total Mac share (MacOS + MacIntel) has increased from 4.3% to 6.0%.

Given that amount of kit Apple is currently selling (see previous article), and the fact one of my colleagues had to go on a waiting list to get his new Macbook Pro, I would say the trend overall is likely to be a growing increase in Mac usage overall. The demand is certainly there if Apple can ramp up to meet it. Of course, you would also expect Vista usage will increase rapidly, but probably primarily at the expense of older versions of windows… Just my 2c worth.

PostScript - seems like Tom Krazit of CNET agress with me… see his article here.