If it's the first of the month, it's time for me to be accused of being an indentured servant of web metrics firm Net Applications. Nonetheless, data from thousands of web sites and millions of visitors make it at least possible to follow trends and, more importantly, have something to make pretty graphs with. And the graph is indeed looking good for Mac OS X.

At 7.96 percent, Mac OS X will surely break 8 percent market share sometime this month, a gain of a third in just a year, and a truly astounding accomplishment for Apple. By platform, Intel Macs saw their numbers jump by a quarter of a percent to 5.26 percent, while PPC graybeards declined to 2.7 percent. For doomsayers grasping at upgraders to explain the gains, Intel Macs increased at twice the pace of decline for PPC Macs. The rapid decline of PPC Macs coupled with sharp gains for Intel Macs no doubt factored into the decision to make Snow Leopard Intel only. See, we did learn something from Net Applications, and it's not the only thing.

Safari modestly increased its market share, from 6.25 to 6.32 percent total; however, Safari for Windows saw no gain after last month's surge from nothing to nearly nothing at 0.28 percent, that surge being a one-time Software Update trick. Safari for Windows will likely now return to obscurity where it belongs. The big news for the Apple browser is that Safari 4.0 is being used by enough developers or crazy people running torrented copies of Snow Leopard to register on the graph. Sure, it's only 0.01 percent, but it still counts.

Regarding the iPhone, an amusing aside has validated Net Application's choice to list the iPhone as an OS, rather than a mobile version of Safari under browsers. Last month, banners at WWDC proudly displayed "OS X iPhone" from the rafters of Moscone Center. As for the numbers, the iPhone remains stuck at 0.16 percent, at least partially due to Apple running out of iPhones in May. No doubt the release of the iPhone 3G will boost the iPhone's meager market share, though the launch date of July 11 may mean we won't see the numbers reflected until the August report is released.

Overall, another in a seemingly endless run of good months for the Mac. Expect these soft numbers for market share to be validated by hard ones when Apple announces its third quarter earnings this month.