Apple users -- of Snow Leopard and of iPhones -- are on the rise, according to research from Net Applications. Since introducing Snow Leopard Aug. 28, the operating system -- which is version 10.6 of the Mac OS -- has seen rapid adoption. Net Applications reported that 18.45 percent of Mac users have upgraded to Snow Leopard just one month after its release.

The Net metrics firm found that as of Sept. 29, the global share of Snow Leopard was .91 percent. Overall, Mac share stands at 5.12 percent, up from 4.87 the month earlier. The survey comprised browser data of roughly 160 million visits to Web sites worldwide.

That's not much threat to Windows, which, while declining slightly (.31 percent) to 92.77 percent, is still the powerhouse player in operating systems. Net Applications also found that Linux installations held steady between August and September with .95 percent market share. However, it shows a pretty impressive heady adoption rate.

Net Applications also found Apple iPhone use growing, based on a small sample size. The rise of the OS and the iPhone could be linked, speculates a blog on the Gerson Lehrman analyst site.

"In Snow Leopard, iPhone users' photographs are tagged with GPS coordinates and then mapped showing users where the photographs originated. My suggestion is that Apple may be leading towards other uses of GPS, mapping and the API (PlaceBase & PushPin) to include voice communications and other applications. The former Nextel devised a mapping solution to track users/vehicles by a similar application."