Apple's senior vice president of marketing, Phil Schiller, told TechCrunch in a report published Tuesday that the Mac's user base was nearing 100 million users.
To compare, 400 million computers were running Windows 10 as of September, according to ZDNet, and that figure is likely to be higher today.
And Schiller's figure encompasses all Mac computers, some of which could be running older versions of Apple's macOS (or OS X, as Apple named its older operating systems) while Microsoft's figure is specific to Windows 10. Many more computers are most likely running older versions of Windows, like Window 7, 8, Vista, and even XP.
Schiller also said 80% of Apple's Mac shipments were laptops, like the MacBook, the MacBook Air, and the MacBook Pro, while 20% are desktops, including the iMac and the Mac Pro. He also mentioned that Apple's MacBook Pro sales had grown 20% year-over-year in the fiscal first quarter.
Schiller told TechCrunch that Apple's Mac computer business was clearly doing well, nearing a $25 billion run rate. That number brings Apple's Mac business on its own closer to a Fortune 100 status.
Still, Microsoft's Windows business is growing, too, especially in the high-end market. More consumers are enticed by Microsoft's high-end Surface lineup of hybrid laptop-tablet devices, which lines up with the growing market for such products. Apple doesn't offer a laptop-tablet hybrid that runs a full desktop operating system. Microsoft now also sells a high-end desktop computer, the Surface Studio, which our own Matt Weinberger said was leagues better than any Mac he had tried.
And other high-end applications that demand premium $900-plus computers, like virtual reality, are also steering users to Windows from Mac, albeit slowly.
Add the tepid reception of Apple's latest lineup of 2016 MacBook Pro laptops to the mix, and it's clear that Apple still has its work cut out for it to match Microsoft's Windows.
Apple told reporters on Tuesday that it would be releasing new models to its professional desktop lineup, including new iMacs and Mac Pros, in 2017 and 2018. Yet, considering that most of Apple's computer sales are in laptops, the impact of the refreshed Apple desktops may not dramatically increase the Mac's user base.
