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"The 2.5% figure is worldwide sales, not US sales and that does not represent installed base"

If the 2.5% represents worldwide sales, that's even better for Microsoft, given that, worldwide sales are far bigger than US sales.
But the 2.5% figure from that article DO represent US sales.

"Webapplications.com shows that in February web usage on worldwide websites that are heavily PC weighted was 6.38%"

Webapplications represent nothing.
They don't represent PC or Mac sales. They merely represent PC or Mac users in the limited sites they monitor, and their figures have always been very different, and much more skewed aginst Microsoft than figures from the much better known and more reliable Websidestory.
Even Apple themselves, in their most recently reported sales figures, said they had sold just 1.6 million machines in the last three months of 2006, virtually the same number it sold in the previous three months, yet Webappications is reporting market share increase for Macs. So where are the extra mac users from?
There was no sales increase.

"Steve Jobs "boast" is backed up by the sales figures reported to the FTC in their annual and quarterly reports which are a little more accurate than the guesstimates made by analysts"

Apple sold virtually the same number of Macs in the 4th quarter as they sold in the quarter before that.
The FTC is not a PC/Mac measuring outfit. Jobs boast is simply an empty boast.
If PC users had been switching at the rate of "9000" per day, that would make 3.24 million switchers per year, and Apple would not be having a measly 2.6 % share of PC sales worldwide in December.
We have been hearing this talk of "Apple has been gaining market share" for over 15 year from the apple fanboys, and Mac shares are still a very tiny 2.5% worldwide today.
Where is all the "increase in market share" at when it comes to real sales?

But the 2.5% figure from that article DO represent US sales.

Now either you are calling the published articles, IDC's own reports lies, or you are lying. PROVE YOUR 2.5% figure. If Apple's undisputed Mac sales of 1,610,000 for Quarter 3 are only 2.5% of all US sales, then US sales of computers for that quarter were 64,400,000. That is not true. Quarter3 2006 US computer sales were 16,956,000. Do the math... just don't make false claims you can't back up.

I have proven mine. Do I have to provide the chart AGAIN? You make claims; I provide proof.

I think I will post it again:

Notes:
• IDC estimates for Gateway & Toshiba are prior to financial earnings reports.
• Shipments include shipments to distribution channels or end users. OEM sales are counted under the vendor/brand under which they are sold.
• PCs include Desktop, Notebook, Ultra Portable, and x86 Servers.
• PCs do not include handhelds. Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.
Source, IDC, October 18, 2006

Let's READ the chart... it says ". . . U.S. PC Shipments, Third Quarter 2006). . ." and then it says ". . . 4 Apple 975(,000) 5.8%. . . " and then it says ". . . All Vendors 16,956(,000) 100%. . .">. I'll let you do the math to learn that Apple sold 5.8% of all PCs sold in the United States of America in the third quarter of 2006.

They don't represent PC or Mac sales. They merely represent PC or Mac users in the limited sites they monitor, and their figures have always been very different, and much more skewed aginst Microsoft than figures from the much better known and more reliable Websidestory.

Now I think you need to document that claim. In actual fact Webapplications.com is skewed toward Windows centric websites, not Apple.

Your claims fly in the face of all other statistics, Shaw. Back them up. Provide the data you claim exists. I can provide sources... you make and repeat unfounded assertions without providing proof.

Where is all the "increase in market share" at when it comes to real sales?

Going off Apple's latest 10Q filing with the SEC, it appears they sold 28% more total Macs than they did the same quarter in the previous year. Desktop sales were about the same, but the notebooks took off amazingly, a 65% increase in sales. And to top it off, this latest quarter was a week (7%) shorter than the previous one, so we can probably say sales rose almost 30%, adjusted.

Overall PC sales growth for 2006 was 10%. Apple's was 28% (unadjusted). That is a huge relative growth.

If PC users had been switching at the rate of "9000" per day, that would make 3.24 million switchers per year

Current sales total to 6.4 million per year. 3.2 million requires only half of those be switchers. The PC market is HUGE, 240 million shipped last year, so a million more from one company doesn't count for much in the percentages. But it is awesome for Apple shareholders.