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Evaluation December 2004 of the Mac Survey

This evaluation of the Macintosh survey covers the December figures on the Apple Mac usage. The analysis of the findings studies European Mac users in Scandinavia and the German-speaking area.

The global Mac Survey was launched on 1st October 2004 and almost 2'000 persons participated in the year 2004. This approximates to 21.4 replies on average per day (53.9 answers each day in December). 83 percent of the forms were submitted on Apple Macintosh computers; the remaining were sent from Windows PCs, Linux or unknown systems.

• Summary
• Hardware: Mac Model and CPU
• Software: Mac OS and Browser
• Display: Number, Type, Size and Resolution
• Geographic Variations
• Technology: AirPort and iPod
• Feedback

The detailed findings for the ongoing poll are available online. Current state on 21.7.2010: 3'106 participants.

Summary

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, the professional 'Power' Macintosh product line and Apple Safari rule in Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and Iceland. The open source browser Mozilla Firefox, PowerPC G5 processor and small 12" notebook screens are gaining momentum in Scandinavia.

1'970 Apple Mac users primarily from Scandinavian countries participated with the help of postings published by Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic and Estonian Apple user groups. The number of participating persons exploded by 659 percent compared to the previous month. The 1'000th participant was logged on 14 December. December was the third month of the Macintosh survey.

54 percent use a desktop Mac and 45.5 percent a portable machine. 65 percent of the participants utilize a PowerMac or PowerBook of the Pro product line. The G4 processor powers almost 69 percent of the computers, followed by IBM's G5 and the PowerPC G3.

With almost 83 percent is Mac OS X 10.3 Panther the most popular operating system and close to 93 percent use only one operating system. Mac OS 9.x has a share of 7 percent. 52 percent work frequently with one browser. Safari from Apple is for more than 52 percent of the users the preferred browser. By far follow Firefox with 21 percent, Internet Explorer 5.x with 9 percent and the rest of the Mozilla family.

Over 80 percent have one screen and approx. 70 percent deploy LCD flat panel displays. 15", 17" and 12" are the most commonly used monitor sizes, followed by 19" and 20" displays. The screen resolution of 1024 x 768 is most frequently with 33.5 percent, in front of 1280 x 1024, 1280 x 854 to 960 and 1440 x 900 resolutions.

More than half of the participating Mac users were from Sweden, 22 percent from Finland, 11 percent from Switzerland and 5 percent from Germany. Over 54 percent have a wireless Internet connection and less than 46 percent apply AirPort. 44 percent own an Apple iPod, 7 percent use an other music player.

The Panther update to Mac OS X 10.3.7 was released before Christmas, but without Safari 1.3. The Macworld San Francisco from 10 to 14 January 2005 could bring a few surprises as the rumor mills are predicting the unexpected. We have to wait for Steve Jobs presentation to know the truth. To the table of contents

Hardware: Mac Model and CPU

Looking at the computer type, portable Macs gained 5.7% to 45.5 percent while desktop systems lost 5% to almost 54 percent. The majority of the participating Apple customers prefers better quality and performance. Increasingly with a Mac OS X laptop to utilize the power on the move.

Desktop / tower		53.9%
Portable / notebook		45.5%

The Pro Mac series still rules with 65 percent for the Macintosh model. 35.5 percent (-3.3%) have a Power Mac, followed by the PowerBook with nearly 30 percent (+0.5%), the iBook with virtually 16 percent (+5.2%) and the iMac with 14 percent (-2.6%). The iMac and iBook changed positions. The compact all-in-one systems iMac and eMac had a total share of 16.6 percent (-2.1%).

Power Mac		35.5%
PowerBook		29.6%
iBook		15.9%
iMac		14.1%
eMac		2.5%
Cube		1.8%

The Motorola G4 remains the workhorse for most Mac users with around 67 percent (+3.4%). The G5 processor from IBM jumped to the second place with less than 19 percent (+5.2%) and clearly overtook the PowerPC G3 at 11.5 percent (loosing 8.2%). PowerMacs and iMacs powered by a G5 chip are advancing fast.

PowerPC G4		68.6%
PowerPC G5		18.6%
PowerPC G3		11.5%
PowerPC 60x		0.7%

Software: Mac OS and Browser

With almost 83 percent Mac OS X 10.3 Panther leads unrivaled as the most often used Mac operating system and got a big boost this month (+11.5%). Mac OS 9.x with 7 percent (-8.5%), Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) with more than 4 percent (-1.4%) and the Mac OS X Classic environment with 3.5 percent (-0.1%) lost ground.

Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)		82.8%
Mac OS 9.x		6.9%
Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)		4.3%
Classic in Mac OS X		3.5%

A minority of slightly more then 6 percent work frequently with two Mac systems as the modern Mac OS X and the classic Mac OS (-2.4%). Most Mac users, close to 93 percent, use regularly only one operating system (+2.3%).

1 operating system		92.6%
2 operating systems		6.3%

Mac OS X 10.x received a proportion exceeding 88 percent (+9.8%), while Mac OS 9, older system versions and the Classic environment of Mac OS X held a combined share of 10.4 percent (-9.7%). 93 percent of the responses from as Macintosh identified systems were sent on Mac OS X and 7 percent on Mac OS (Classic).

Mac OS X 10.x		88.2%
Mac OS 9.x or older		10.4%

52 percent use regular only one Web browser (-1.4%), more than 35 percent two (+3.8%) and about 13 percent three to five browsers on their Macintosh computer (-2.1%).

1 browser		52.1%
2 browsers		35.2%
3 to 5 browsers		12.6%

Apple Safari is the most commonly used browser with over 52 percent (+4.5%), ahead of Firefox with 21.2 percent (+8.3%), Microsoft IE 5.x with more than 9 percent (-4.8%) and Camino with almost 5 percent (+0.4%). Netscape 7.x (+0.6%) and Mozilla (-5.2%) follow with each less than 4 percent of the entries. Firefox took the number two spot from the aging MSIE for Mac. Mozilla was overtaken by Camino and Netscape 7.x for the first time.

Safari		52.3%
Firefox (Firebird, Phoenix)		21.2%
Internet Explorer 5.x		9.3%
Camino (Chimera)		4.8%
Netscape 7.x		3.8%
Mozilla		3.8%

The open source browsers Camino 0.8.2 and Mozilla 1.7.5 based on the latest Gecko rendering engine became available. Just under 65 percent of the surveys were transferred with Safari. The newest Safari 1.2.4 was counted in 80 percent (+53%) of the cases and 12.4 percent used the former version 1.2.3 (-50.6%), both running on Mac OS X 10.3. To the table of contents

Display: Number, Type, Size and Resolution

More than 80 percent (-2.3%) work with one display and nearly 19 percent (+2.1%) have up to two monitors connected to their Mac. The share of portable owners with external monitor accounted for 65 percent of the dual screen work places.

1 display		80.3%
2 displays		18.8%

TFT flat panels are with 70 percent en vogue (-3.5%). Nevertheless 28 percent of the participators have a CRT tube monitor in use (+2.6%).

LCD flat-panel display		69.6%
CRT display		27.9%

The monitor size was dominated by 17" with close to 25 percent (-1.9%), 15" with 21 percent (-4.3%) and 12" screens with nearly 18 percent (+7.0%), followed by 19" (-3.5%), 20", 14", 21" and 23" displays. The 12-inch screen with 1024 by 768 pixel found in the smallest 12-inch PowerBook and all white iBooks gained the most since November.

17-inch (43.2 cm)		24.7%
15-inch (38.1 cm)		21.1%
12-inch (30.5 cm)		17.7%
19-inch (48.3 cm)		10.6%
20-inch (50.8 cm)		9.2%
14-inch (35.5 cm)		4.5%
21-inch (53.3 cm)		4.2%
23-inch (58.4 cm)		2.8%
22-inch (55.9 cm)		1.8%
18-inch (45.7 cm)		0.9%

Most frequently were resolutions of 1024 x 768 (33.5 percent +3.7%), 1280 x 1024 (17.7 percent +3.4%) and 1280 x 854 to 960 (12.8 percent -0.4%). These were followed by for the Mac typical 1440 x 900 wide-screen (8.4 percent -2.7%) and 1152 x 768 to 870 (6.5 percent -2.9%), as well as pixel numbers of 1600 x 1200 (+2.3%), 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200.

1024 x 768		33.5%
1280 x 1024		17.7%
1280 x 854-960		12.8%
1440 x 900		8.4%
1152 x 768-870		6.5%
1600 x 1200		6.4%
1680 x 1050		4.9%
1920 x 1200		2.9%
Less than 1024 x 768		2.0%
1600 x 1024		2.0%

The 1600 x 1200 resolution gained two places, compared to the declining Mac specific 1680 x 1050 and 1920 x 1200 resolutions used in the larger 20-inch iMac G5, 20" wide-screen display and the 23" Cinema HD Display.

4.29 milliards (32 bit)		93.7%
65 thousands (16 bit)		4.6%
16.7 millions (24 bit)		1.2%

Almost 94 percent (+3.7%) had set their monitor to display 'Millions of Colors' simultaneously, which corresponds in the Mac world to a color depth of 32 bit. To the table of contents

Geographic Variations

More than half of the participating Apple users were living in Sweden (51.1% or 1'006 persons to be precise). Over 22 percent came from Finland, 11.4 percent from Switzerland (-56.8%), 5.2 percent from Germany (-20.6%) and 3 percent from Iceland. The Swedish and Finnish Mac users outrun the leading Swiss and German Macintosh fans with big steps.

The US (America) gained 1.4% from last months ninth place to almost 2 percent. Estonia placed itself in front of Norway, Austria (-3.3%, former third position) and Denmark. Mainly responses from Europe were recorded, but Prismo enjoyed results around the globe, from Argentina to Canada and from New Zealand, Australia to Asian countries.

Sweden		51.1%
Finland		22.2%
Switzerland		11.4%
Germany		5.2%
Iceland		3.1%
United States		1.7%
Estonia		1.4%
Norway		0.8%
Austria		0.7%
Denmark		0.4%

The survey was sent to various Apple User Groups in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Estonia. Prismo was impressed with the overwhelming success in Scandinavia, especially in Sweden and Finland. The Nordic Macintosh user groups (MUG) showed a well organized network of Mac users. Strong support came from 99mac (largest MUG from Sweden), MacNytt.se (Swedish Mac community), MacLin (Linköpings Macintoshanvändarförening), fiMUG (Finnish Macintosh User Group), IceMUG (Icelandic Macintosh User Group), eMUG (Estonian Mac User Group) and many more.

83.4 percent used the English survey form and 16.6 percent the German version. A French translation is scheduled for early 2005. To the table of contents

Technology: AirPort and iPod

Slightly less than 46 percent (-2.1%) of the participating Mac users applied AirPort for wireless Internet access and close to 9 percent (+6.0%) use an other Wi-Fi product. 45 percent (-2.7%) say, they have no wireless connection to the Net

Yes, AirPort		45.7%
No		45.1%
Yes, other Wi-Fi product		8.7%

44 percent (-0.4%) own a hard disk based iPod from Apple and 7 percent (+4.6%) use an other MP3 music player. Less than 49 percent (-3.8%) have no portable MP3 player.

No		48.7%
Yes, iPod		44.1%
Yes, other music player		6.9%

Feedback

Nearly 8 percent of the participants had additional feedback regarding the questionnaire, which was published together with comments in the results. 110 English and 43 German remarks were sent. 67 percent of the feedback was answered respectively commented.

The AirPort and iPod questions were improved based on constructive suggestions from Finnish survey participants. After feedback from Estonian and Argentinian users the originally available country choices were more than doubled (now 75 up from 38). We considered additional countries that seem 'important' to Apple, have a strong Mac user community or have a presence by Apple (or one of its authorized partners).

The country list was expanded twice to cover more countries around the world. The Middle East region and the following 29 countries were added on 18 December:

Albania, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, Israel, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Before New Years evening the Latin America countries Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Peru, Venezuela and Indonesia (Asia) were included. To the table of contents

Note: The sum of the percentage numbers per result is at least 90 percent. The total matches not always exactly 100 percent because minor values were omitted in favor of bar graph clarity. The percentage changes relate to the previous month unless otherwise noted.

Unterehrendingen (Switzerland), 2nd January 2005