• by October 9, 2000

For all those advertising creatives who care about which operating system, which browser and email program the targets of their online ad campaigns are using, here are some stats. WebSideStory today reported that the global Web usage share of Apple's Macintosh OS has remained steady at around 3% since early 1999.

The data shows that while Apple has retained a core following among Web surfers worldwide, it has been unable to make any advances into Microsoft's dominant global OS share. As of Oct. 4, 2000, the Mac OS accounted for 2.84% of all monitored Internet usage, according to WebSideStory's StatMarket.

Windows had a usage share of 92.82% on the same date, while Unix had 0.44%. Other operating systems, including Microsoft's WebTV, Linux, Sun SunOS, Silicon Graphics IRIX, Amiga, and IBM OS/2 among others, had an aggregate 3.90% usage share worldwide.

Apple's Mac OS usage share on Jan. 10, 1999, was 2.66%. It hit a low of 2.39% on Aug. 1, 1999, and then a high of 3.21% on May 9, 2000. While the overall growth in Mac's usage has been nearly stagnant; it has held ground better than Windows, which has dropped by more than a percentage point from 94.11% on Jan. 10, 1999. Other operating systems have risen by more than a percentage point collectively since early 1999.

"It's a case of the glass being either half-empty or half-full for Apple," said Geoff Johnston, VP of product marketing for StatMarket. "The fact that the Apple's Mac OS share has not eroded, and others have made small gains, seems to indicate that there is room for non-Microsoft operating systems on the Web."