Question How much of the world's commercial websites/applications depend on Apple hardware?

[igor_kavinski]

Curious question I posted here: https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...akes-discussion-threads.2606448/post-41284018

@DokiDoki , posting the reply here as I don't want to derail that thread.

Server Operating System Market Volume, Share | Analysis, 2032

The global server operating system market volume is projected to grow from 26,389 thousand in 2024 to 67,837 thousand by 2032, at a CAGR of 12.5%

www.fortunebusinessinsights.com

As you can see, Linux has the lion's share of the market. UNIX and others may have Apple hardware included and it is also possible that the Linux marketshare has some Mac Asahi Linux deployments. Point is, Apple gets hyped for no reason because in the grand scheme of things, it is too expensive for individuals and even corporations to matter and Apple has not shown any interest in changing that, unless they create their own price competitive Apple Cloud that gives AWS and Azure a run for their money.

@Nothingness , you may also reply to my question here if you wish, which I posted in that MTL thread: https://forums.anandtech.com/thread...akes-discussion-threads.2606448/post-41283997

 

[yottabit]

I would guess less than 1%

 

[manly]

For Web hosting, if you rounded to the nearest whole number percentage, I would guess 0.

There are a few macOS hosting companies out there; AFAIK this would be for stuff like Xcode Server builds.

There certainly is an "Apple tax" but at the same time, their products are largely affordable in developed economies. Cost isn't the reason Apple isn't competitive in the corporate space (and yet MacBooks are quite popular with some devs and business users). Apple has always sucked at catering to corporate customers, and they only even try with the iPhone.

 

[faolan]

Apple had a small percentage of the server market in the 2000s with OS X Server. The Xserve PowerPC rack mount boxes helped capture some UNIX server workloads as Sun, Alpha and others were disappearing. I vaguely recall some big G5 powered supercomputer used for research being touted at a few Apple keynotes.

Webobjects was another factor, and in the Intel era, Xserves became popular for also running MacOS VMs inside VMWare VSphere for a bit. Some Mac dev shops ran them and OS X Server for various Xgrid distribution workloads. Had a friend who maintained LDAP running on OS X Server for a major college. Some Windows shops liked them for the cheaper SMB and small business features that could work with Windows desktops compared to Microsoft licensing costs. Apple even aimed a Mac mini Server at that market for a bit. So many various uses for it back then, but Apple never grabbed much marketshare.

Apple pretty much moved away from all these UNIX server features they got from the NeXTStep roots, and focused on the iPhone and iPad management side going into the 2010s.