Courtesy of OSWeekly.com

(Column) - It sure is a wild time to be a Mac user, huh? For years, the Mac admirers were pushed to the side and their opinions and ideas were ignored. At one time, there weren’t all that many people using Apple products, so it was going to take more than a small number off people to truly make an impact on the market and have their voices heard. That must have been frustrating. I didn’t start seriously using the Mac OS until around three years ago, so I can’t fully imagine what that was like, but as I said, I acknowledge the difficulties that many of you probably faced.

There is something special about being in the minority, because you feel like you’re a part of a special group, but the problem comes into play when your numbers prevent you from doing what you want to do. As time has elapsed, the popularity of the Mac OS and Apple in general has risen to new heights, and that’s given the users more of a say in certain things.

OS X certainly did (and is doing) a lot of good for Apple, and so has the switch to Intel processors. In addition, even though it’s not directly related to the operating system, the iPod has also helped to raise awareness, and it’s been one of the main motivating factors that have encouraged people to switch from their PC to a Mac. With Vista struggling to attract an enthusiastic audience of technology luminaries, OS X is becoming more of an attractive option to people who feel left out by the way Microsoft has designed its latest OS.

When you observe the fact that all of this is going on, it’s easy to see why many of us have felt like Apple must be beginning to deservedly gain more of the OS market share, but in this case, assumptions aren’t always the best policy.

Net Applications, a market research firm, has published a report that may shock even the most unmovable of Windows users. In their analysis of operating system usage, they found that overall Mac OS usage is actually slightly lower than last year.

Lower? With the way things are going, is that even possible? Well, according to Net Applications, it sure is. While OS X appeared to be having a small increase in usage during the later part of last year, the numbers show that OS X market share fell from 4.35 percent in December 2005 to 4.33 percent in August 2006, and that figure includes the usage of Mac Intel machines. If you subtracted the increase in that area, then you’d actually be left with a lower number that would sit right at 3.71 percent.

The most disturbing part about this report is that it shows that Windows XP usage has actually climbed to 84.18 percent. If it takes you a minute to swallow that figure, then I completely understand. While it may appear that people are switching in droves to OS X, the numbers reflect a very different story, and they help to explain why Microsoft continues to not be engulfed by fear of what OS X will ultimately do to Windows.

As you would expect, some people are questioning the validity of the data from this report, and even if it’s not right on the money, it does reflect what we already know about Windows - there is a huge gap between the amount of people who are using it, and the amount of people who are using the Mac OS.

People can attack Vista as much as they want to, but even if the quality of the product itself turns out be what you would expect from a failure, it’ll probably still be a big success. Windows commands the market, and when you’re on top, you have room to be a little cocky and self-righteous, but unfortunately, this has also caused them to not listen to or act on what their users are saying as much as they should.