Oct 01 2008
OS War: Mac vs PC Statistics
Ever since the switcher ads started airing on television, Apple has been gaining market share in the Operating System world. Although it hasn’t been an overwhelming increase, they are still moving forward. Microsoft’s Windows platform is still dominant in the home and workplace, but Apple has a lot of room to grow its user base with the Mac OS. I have often wondered what type of gains Apple would make if they allowed Tiger and Leopard to be licensed on ordinary PC’s. Maybe someday we will find out, but knowing how Apple operates it will probably never happen.
The first of every month I will be outlining the latest statistics for OS market share among computer users worldwide. Please be aware that these percentages are based on consumers and businesses, not including servers. The actual figures and data are provided by Global Market Share Statistics and their website can be viewed here.
|
Operating System |
September 2008 |
September 2007 |
September 2006 |
|
Windows |
90.66% |
92.47% |
94.80% |
|
Mac |
7.86% |
6.63% |
4.72% |
|
Linux |
0.93% |
0.49% |
0.40% |
Wow, looks like Apple is gaining more than one percent per year. Maybe 40 years Microsoft and Apple will be equal. Haha!
I need to use Windows for some things, but I’d have to say DOS is still my favorite OS. It’s predictable, boots up fast, works on almost any computer, and I don’t have to worry much about viruses. Some people still develop software for DOS, so it can be used to do things like play MP3s, access the internet, watch AVI videos, and read PDF files.
From one angle the gains don’t seem that significant, but notice that Mac market share has nearly doubled and Linux has more than doubled in 2 years. If they keep gaining momentum their market share could increase exponentially in the next decade. Windows will still be top dog for a while of course but the times are changing and they are slowly losing their iron grip on the pc world.