15% mac browsers, but 40% mac downloads?

[Christian Schüler]

Topic. My recent web statistics indicate that 15% of visitors come from the macOS. So far this is a usual figure. However the download statistics say that 40% of demo downloads are for the mac version. Now I try to reconcile these numbers...

• Are they bots?
• Do people just indiscriminately click on every download available?

Do others have similar experience?

[surferman]

Some people on Mac use a different user agent for their web browsers.

[BDeep]

I believe it was Linplug that once indicated that the split between sales in their experience was about 50/50 for windows/mac.
Now this can either mean that Macs are relatively more used for music, or that relatively more pirated software is used on windows. Or a combination of both.
In the latter case, it would make sense that someone would want information on the product by visiting the website, but it makes little sense to download the demo since they're going to get a pirated version anyway.

And I sincerely hope that there's another, more innocent and positive, explanation for it

[fluffy_little_something]

I suppose there are many more Windows users than Apple users out there. And I suppose there are fewer programs for the Apple world, so Windows users might be pickier as they have more alternatives to choose from

Or Apple users are more likely to know what they want as I think they are more professional than Windows users on average.

[Christian Schüler]

Some people on Mac use a different user agent for their web browsers.

Yeah, I can enable the developer menu in Safari and choose, say, to impostor as "Internet Explorer 11". But really do users do this on a regular basis?

I believe it was Linplug that once indicated that the split between sales in their experience was about 50/50 for windows/mac.

I know this to be true for iOS vs Android from a friend game dev. The company he works for doesn't even bother with Android. He says, you'd make pity sales on that platform because of all the warez.

This is to a lesser extent also applicable to Mac vs Windows. The commercial importance of the Mac platform is higher than a direct comparison based on % of users might indicate, because Mac users actually *buy* stuff. I can confirm that.

However, at least up until now, I could not find a working pirated version of AriesVerb (touch wood). I looked in all the usual places, and the only offers are scams, not working copies. Hopefully this continues for a while... So even if one exists, it must be hard to come by. But the casual site visitor might not know that.

[BDeep]

Ah! That's great news!

I just saw you updated Ariesverb, was it for Mac before, or just since this update? That might explain the extra demo downloads.

Otherwise, I really wouldn't know...

And I still wouldn't rule out the pirates vs buyers thing completely, after all, demos are likely mainly used by people who would potentially -buy- the software.

[Richard_Synapse]

Since we sell PC+Mac licenses combined since many years I cannot give you exact numbers, but roughly 25-40% is a realistic estimate for Mac users and matches what other developers have reported. So it's definitely substantially more than 15%.

Richard

[nineofkings]

And I suppose there are fewer programs for the Apple world, so Windows users might be pickier as they have more alternatives to choose from

This sounds like a simple explanation to me. If more Windows users click through without purchasing/downloading, then you'd have a higher proportion of Mac sales/downloads relative to Mac views.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

This seems to be normal. We have 45% of Mac users among customers, and 23% of Mac browser visitors.

[Christian Schüler]

Thanks for the info, Aleksey!

[davidguda]

I see similar stuff, much less mac visitors than windows visitors but mac visitors are more likely to buy.
I would still say ~75% of customers are windows.