It’s always kind of been a given that Windows more or less dominates the marketplace. Traditionally that’s been driven by lower-priced hardware and a desire of users to match what they used at work. During the Mac’s first year of sales, the IBM PC outsold Macs by a ratio of about six PCs for each Mac. After clones were introduced, that ratio increased dramatically.

The folks over at the market research site, Asymco, have compiled sales numbers since 1984 and have found that after peaking at a ratio of 56:1 in 2004, Mac sales have taken a larger and larger share of new computer purchases. Right now PCs only outsell at about 20:1, which is less than half the rate it was 8 years ago and the lowest it’s been since Windows 95 was released.

If you take all Apple’s offerings – Macs, the iPhone and the iPad – together, that ratio plummets even further: closer to 2:1!

Of course, debates abound whether adding iOS to OS X is fair; though there is some overlap in function (web browsing, email, etc.), the two operating systems serve two distinct functions: “desktop” and “mobile.” In that vein, iOS should be compared to Android and/or Windows Phone – where it’s just about an even heat between iOS and Android.

However you want to look at it though, it’s clear that Mac ownership is on its way up. With a 25% worldwide user base and the “halo effect” of the iPad and iPhone, it only looks to get better