How many Mac users?

This is a good question – how many active Mac users are there?

Well, I must admit, I had no idea. I hadn’t even given it any thought. I guess I should have, as the number of Mac users there are is also the same as the number of potential customers there are for MMISoftware programs…!

Well, the other day I was reading an article in tidbits (TidBITS is an online newsletter that started in 1990, it was originally just an ‘email’ letter, but is now also a website, and I have been reading issues since about 1994) and they quoted Steve Jobs at the August 2006 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference where he said there were 19 million active Mac OS X users. In the same article TidBITS quoted a recent report from Keith Bachman, an analyst at Bank of America Securities, who suggested there are 22 million users of all versions of Mac OS X, with an increase of 6 million Mac users since the release of Mac OS X 10.4 in June 2005.

These figures are higher than I expected. And the increase in numbers is most encouraging. Now, if only I could persuade each Mac OS X user to give me $1!

(I wonder how many Mac users are still on OS9?)