Last week we got a lot of great feedback about this article about TPM at Nieman Lab, which focused on the way we’re rethinking the site in light of the rapid growth of mobile readership. With that in mind, let me show you some data which is simply amazing to anyone who has been tracking the evolution of the Internet over the last 15 years.
First, as you can see in this pie chart, the Windows operating system now accounts for barely 50% of the visits to the site. (Perspective: January 2011, Windows had a 61% share; January 2010, 64% share; January 2009, 70% share.) That’s a measure of the generally Mac-centric nature of our audience demographic but it’s also hugely tied to the growth of mobile, and particularly Apple’s iOS operating system (iPhone and iPad). (Another point of comparison: in January 2009, 28% of our audience came from Operating Systems owned by Apple; today that number is 42%.)
Next, browsers. We just reported that by one closely watched measure, Google’s chrome operating system is now the most used browser in the world. Among our readers it’s actually still third. But look at Internet Explorer! It comes in last among the major browsers, in fourth place.
