Usage share of operating systems

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Worldwide usage share of operating systems as of April 2017 map[1]

The usage share of operating systems is an estimate of the percentage of computing devices that run each operating system at any particular time. This also approximates to the market share of those operating systems. Differences arise between shipments of devices by operating system and their usage share due to users changing or upgrading operating systems on devices, and the differing usage patterns and working lifetimes of various devices.

There are three big personal computing platforms.[2] Google claims over 2.6 billion users[3] with Android while Microsoft has claimed over 1.4 billion users for Windows. The third "platform" – or strictly two (or three) platforms – Apple's iOS and macOS combined, is claimed to have over 1.3 billion users.[2][4] Windows running on personal computers (i.e. those other than e.g. smartphones, such as desktop computers) has been dominant for over 25 years period since the early 1990s. The mainframe computer-era preceded the desktop era.[5][6] From late 2016 the mobile era took over, with total desktop computers' market share (measured by web usage and including macOS) having reduced to 45% by January 2017.[7][8] The "end of an era"[9] was declared by StatCounter with Windows no longer the most popular operating system, and desktop computers in general no longer the most popular format. Since 2017, smartphones alone – excluding tablets – have been the most common computing device globally.

Different categories of computers use a wide variety of operating systems (OSs). Windows gained the majority usage share in the 1990s on desktop computers, or personal computers (PCs), the type of computer that was then taking over. It was eventually described as "dominant", and it is still used by the majority of desktop machines, but it is no longer dominant across all platforms, although the latest version can run on all platforms. On smartphones, Android is dominant by any metric. As of August 2017, Statistica estimates its installed base at over 2.6 billion (and 0.6 for iPhones)[10] which tops Windows on PCs worldwide. No operating system has a clear majority on all platforms or in all regions, but Android has surpassed Windows globally across all platforms, by StatCounter's web usage statistics, a proxy for all use. Android is the highest ranked OS in most countries of the world.[11] When Android's is added to the usage shares of other mobile operating systems such as Apple's, in late 2016 the world became smartphone-majority. Android has over half the usage share across all platforms in the two biggest and most populous continents, Africa[12] and Asia.[13] Windows is still dominant on desktops everywhere but as of April 2018 when compared across all platforms it's below 50% on every continent, except South America, where it only happens every Sunday, and Android has also been more popular there than Windows on a few exceptional days.[14][15][16] It is down to 36% in North America[17] and 48.27%[18] in Europe. The Windows share across all platforms in the United States was down to 36.34%[19] (the total US desktop share just under 50%[20]) and 40.18% in the UK.[21]

Since 2013, devices running Android have been selling more than Windows, iOS and macOS devices combined. Android has therefore become the most popular operating system on smartphones, while iOS is more common on tablets (according to StatCounter, while it shows Android more popular in entire continents;[22] Netmarketshare tracks iOS as less popular[23]). Most desktop and laptop computers still use Microsoft Windows, while all TOP500 supercomputers use Linux, and in November 2010 the top 10 used Linux. Among server computers, there is more diversity with Linux and Windows Server most popular, and many fewer mainframe OSs.

Data about operating system share is difficult to obtain since in most categories there are few reliable primary sources or agreed methodologies for its collection.

Worldwide device shipments[edit]

Device shipments, 2015
Android
 
 54.16%
iOS/macOS
 
 12.37%
Windows
 
 11.79%
Other
 
 21.66%
OS Device Shipments, Gartner[24]

According to Gartner, the following is the worldwide device shipments (referring to wholesale) by operating system, which includes smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs together.

Worldwide device shipments by operating system
Source Year Android iOS/macOS Windows Others
Gartner[24] 2015 1.3 billion (54%) 297 million (12.3%)
macOS = 21 million
 283 million (11.7%) ~520 million (21.6%)
Gartner[25] 2014 48.61% 11.04% 14.0% 26.34%
Gartner[26] 2013 38.51% 10.12% 13.98% 37.41%
Gartner[27] 2012 22.8% 9.6% 15.62% 51.98%

Note that shipments (to stores) do not mean sales to consumers (not necessarily in the year of shipment), so the use of the numbers as a popularity guide could be misleading. Not only do smartphones sell in higher numbers than traditional PCs – but also as a whole a lot more, by dollar value – with the gap only projected to widen, to well over double.[28]

For 2015 (and earlier), Gartner reports for "the year, worldwide PC shipments declined for the fourth consecutive year, which started in 2012 with the launch of tablets" with 8% decline in PC sales for 2015 (not including cumulative decline in sales over the previous years).[29] Gartner includes Macs (running macOS) in PC sales numbers (but not e.g. iPads and Androids), and they individually had a slight increase in sales in 2015.

On 28 May 2015, Google announced that there are 1.4 billion Android users and 1 billion Google play users, active in May 2015.[30][31] This changed to 2 billion monthly active users in May 2017.[32][33]

On 27 January 2016, Paul Thurrott summarized the operating system market, the day after Apple announced "one billion devices":

Apple's "active installed base" is now one billion devices. [..] Granted, some of those Apple devices were probably sold into the market place years ago. But that 1 billion figure can and should be compared to the numbers Microsoft touts for Windows 10 (200 million, most recently) or Windows more generally (1.5 billion active users, a number that hasn’t moved, magically, in years), and that Google touts for Android (over 1.4 billion, as of September). My understanding of iOS is that the user base was previously thought to be around 800 million strong, and when you factor out Macs and other non-iOS Apple devices, that's probably about right. But as you can see, there are three big personal computing platforms.

— Paul Thurrott[2]

Microsoft backed away from their goal of one billion Windows 10 devices in three years[34] and reported on 26 September 2016 that Windows 10 was running on over 400 million devices.[35] Microsoft has been earning more from Android device patent licensing than from its own Windows Phone sales.[36]

By late 2016, Android (e.g. Samsung's smartphones) had been explained to be "killing" Apple's iOS market share (i.e. its declining sales of smartphones, not just relatively but also by number of units, when the whole market is increasing) with

the gap between the two is growing ever larger all the time.

According to Gartner, Android now boasts a global market share of 86.2 percent. Apple's iOS is a long way behind with a market share of just 12.9 percent. The rest may as well not even exist [..]

These figures, which cover the second quarter of 2016, show that Android has actually increased its market share by 4 percent over the last year. All other operating systems are down, with iOS losing 1.7 percent [..]

OK, so iOS is losing ground, but Apple is still the biggest smartphone vendor, right? Wrong. Samsung takes that crown, with a global market share of 22.3 percent. Apple is languishing in second with 12.9 percent [..]

I think it's fair to declare Android the winner in the mobile operating wars at this point.
— makeuseof.com[37]

Gartner's own press release said, "Apple continued its downward trend with a decline of 7.7 percent in the second quarter of 2016",[38] which is their decline, based on absolute number of units, that underestimates the relative decline (with the market increasing), along with the misleading "1.7 percent [point]" decline. That point decline means an 11.6% relative decline (from 14.6% down to 12.9%).

Although in units sold Apple is declining, they are almost the only vendor making any profit in the smartphone sector from hardware sales alone. In Q3 2016 for example, they captured 103.6% of the market profits.[39]

Tablets[edit]

In 2015, eMarketer estimated, in the beginning of the year, that the tablet installed base would hit one billion[40] for the first time (with China's use at 328 million, which Google Play doesn't serve or track, and US's second at 156 million). At the end of the year because of cheap tablets – not counted by all analysts – that goal was met (even excluding cumulative sales of previous years) as:

Sales quintupled to an expected 1 billion units worldwide this year, from 216 million units in 2014, according to projections from the Envisioneering Group.

While that number is far higher than the 200-plus million units globally projected by research firms IDC, Gartner and Forrester, Envisioneering analyst Richard Doherty says the rival estimates miss all the cheap Asian knockoff tablets that have been churning off assembly lines.[..]

Forrester says its definition of tablets "is relatively narrow" while IDC says it includes some tablets by Amazon — but not all.[..]

The top tech purchase of the year continued to be the smartphone, with an expected 1.5 billion sold worldwide, according to projections from researcher IDC. Last year saw some 1.2 billion sold.[..]

Computers didn’t fare as well, despite the introduction of Microsoft's latest software upgrade, Windows 10, and the expected but not realized bump it would provide for consumers looking to skip the upgrade and just get a new computer instead.

Some 281 million PCs were expected to be sold, according to IDC, down from 308 million in 2014. Folks tend to be happy with the older computers and keep them for longer, as more of our daily computing activities have moved to the smartphone.[..]

While Windows 10 got good reviews from tech critics, only 11% of the 1-billion-plus Windows user base opted to do the upgrade, according to Microsoft. This suggests Microsoft has a ways to go before the software gets "hit" status. Apple's new operating system El Capitan has been downloaded by 25% of Apple's user base, according to Apple.

— USA Today[41]

This conflicts with statistics from IDC that say the tablet market contracted by 10% in 2015 with only Huawei ranked fifth with big gains, more than doubling their share; for fourth quarter 2015, the five biggest vendors are the same except that Amazon Fire tablets ranked third worldwide, new on the list, enabled by its not quite tripling of market share to 7.9%, with its Fire OS Android-derivative.[42]

Web clients[edit]

Web clients' OS family statistics
Android (or based on)
 
 40.05%
Windows (excl. Xbox)
 
 36.56%
Apple's iOS
 
 12.9%
Apple's macOS
 
 5.61%
Unknown
 
 2.53%
Desktop Linux (excl. e.g. Chrome OS)
 
 0.66%
Other
 
 1.69%
Web clients' OS family market share according to StatCounter for January 2018.[43] The information on web clients is obtained from user agent information obtained through JavaScript code run by web browsers supplied to web servers. "Unknown" comprises likely mostly of Android-derivatives operating systems. These figures have a large margin of error for a variety of reasons. For a discussion on the shortcomings see usage share of web browsers.

The most recent data from various sources published during the last twelve months is summarized in the table below. All of these sources monitor a substantial number of web sites; statistics related to one web site only are excluded.

Android currently ranks highest,[9] above Windows (incl. Xbox console) systems, every day of the week. iOS and Windows 10 are competing at 13%. Windows on mobile systems (i.e. Windows Phone) accounts for 0.51% of the web usage.[44]

In a number of developed countries, such as in the UK, the mobile operating systems Android or iOS rank highest, and combined are above Microsoft Windows (the operating system formerly considered dominant).[45] In the United States, they also rank high; there all versions of Windows combined have under 50% usage share.[46] On many days iOS alone has topped Windows in the US.[47]

In seven European countries, e.g. Spain (31.62%), Ireland (21.15%), Italy (23.35%), Poland (55.22%) Android is highest ranked; in addition in three, the UK (24.93%), Sweden, Switzerland (25.98%) iOS is highest ranked. In the rest it's either Windows 7 – or increasingly Windows 10, in 11 countries, including France.[48]

In Europe as a whole the rank is Android, Windows 7, Windows 10, iOS, macOS. Note, Android and iOS include all versions. While Android ranks higher than either Windows 7 or Windows 10 in Europe, it doesn't rank higher than them combined; however globally Android does outnumber Windows 7 plus Windows 10; it in fact rivals all of Windows market share combined.

Also, since January 2016, iOS is ranked first (and since mid-May in the US[49] and in North America as a whole) in Australia,[50] the UK[51] and other European countries,[52] e.g. most Nordic ones, such as Sweden.[53] Note again, that iOS includes many versions, while Windows 10 (that is almost top ranked in Denmark) and Windows 7 are counted individually.

"Unknown" operating system (OS) is strangely high in a few countries such as Madagascar where it's at 38.68%.[54] It's possibly in large part since StatCounter uses browser detection to get OS statistics, and there the most common browser have little use and version breakdown shows "Other" at 34.9%,[55] and Opera Mini 4.4 is (next most) popular browser at 22.1% (plus e.g. 3.34% for Opera 7.6). However browser statistics without version-breakdown has Opera at 48.11% with the "Other" category very small.[56]

In China, Android is highest ranked since January 2016;[57][58] had earlier only been highest ranked on some days, above Windows 7, and every day from 18 September to 20 November 2015[59] (not only weekends[60]) while since then, those two have alternated often. Still, in the Asian continent as a whole, Android has been ranked first, for a year now, as of March 2016 at 42.25%.[61] Since August 2015 – Android is ranked first, at 48.36% in May 2016, in the African continent – when it took a big jump ahead of Windows 7,[62] and thereby making Africa join Asia as a mobile-majority continent. China is no longer a desktop-majority country,[63] joins India, that actually has a huge mobile-majority, and then just confirms Asia's huge mobile-majority.

Online usage of Linux kernel derivatives (Google systems + GNU/Linux) exceeds that of Windows. This has been true since some time between January and April 2016, according to W3Counter[64] and StatCounter.[65] But even before that, the figure for all Unix-like OSes, including those from Apple, was higher than that for Windows.

Source Date Microsoft Windows (kernel): -0.6836.84% Apple XNU: +0.0318.46% Linux kernel: +0.4940.41% Others[a]
10 8/8.1 7 Vista XP WP&RT Other macOS iOS Linux Android Other
StatCounter Global Stats[66] Mar 2017 -0.0612.98% -0.174.57% -0.3617.84% -0.030.41% -0.062.07% 0% 00.06% -0.65.17% +0.1013.09% -0.020.75% +0.5137.93% 00.76% +0.457.21%
StatCounter Global Stats[66] Dec 2016 -0.1512.5% -0.254.79% -0.7618% -0.060.46% -0.072.24% -0.020.64% 00.09% -0.34.92% +0.4312.71% 00.86% +1.5237.8% +0.010.72% -0.374.61%
StatCounter Global Stats[67] Oct 2016 -0.1812.08% -0.225.21% -0.8218.97% -0.020.6% -0.32.44% -0.160.7% +0.010.05% -0.235.3% +0.1712.04% -0.090.85% +1.6234.46% -0.010.63% -0.266.67%
StatCounter Global Stats[68] May 2016 0.6910.27% -0.646.68% -1.5822.25% -0.060.73% -0.553.44% +0.020.83% -0.020.8% -0.045.05% +0.2611.38% -0.080.91% +1.731.6% 0.20.64% 0.316.15%
StatCounter Global Stats[68] Dec 2015 0.846.67% -0.618.5% -1.3526.66% -0.911.0% -0.114.75% +0.030.92% +0.010.2% +0.185.51% +0.1210.82% +0.051.03% +0.6727.01% 00.36% 6.57%
Wikimedia[69] Dec 2016 14.0% 4.65% 18.0% 0.43% 1.70% 0.93% 0.50% 5.4% 19.0% 0.80% 23.0% 0.30% 11.29%
W3Counter[70] Dec 2016 -1.4313.79 -0.644.54% -0.3118.45% NA[b] NA NA NA -0.444.45% -0.0812.60% +0.663.8% +6.5634.37% NA -1.078%
Note
  1. ^ The 'Others' column is obtained by summing all percentage data and subtracting from 100%.
  2. ^ NA: data Not Available

Desktop and laptop computers[edit]

Desktops and laptops are no longer the most used form of computer. Their usage share decreased to 41.16% and then recovered to 44.21% as of May 2018.[71][72] Microsoft Windows is below 50% usage share, when measured across all platforms, on every continent (e.g. Android alone is at 54%, and mobile total 65% in Asia) except South America,[73] including in the US and UK.

  Smartphones (51.49%)
  Desktops/Laptops (44.21%)
  Tablets (4.17%)
Desktop/Laptop operating system browsing statistics
Windows
 
 81.73%
macOS
 
 13.16%
Unknown
 
 2.46%
Linux
 
 1.66%
Chrome OS
 
 0.98%
Desktop OS market share according to StatCounter for April 2018.[74]
Windows version breakdown of those 81.73% in the graph above
Windows 10
 
 46.07%
Windows 7
 
 40.08%
Windows 8.1
 
 7.93%
Windows XP
 
 3.18%
Windows 8
 
 2.05%
Windows Vista
 
 0.61%
Windows NT
 
 0.31%
Windows versions (only) breakdown according to StatCounter for April 2018.

Windows is still the dominant desktop OS (not overall), but the dominance varies by regions, has gradually lost market share to other desktop operating systems (not just to mobile) with the slide very noticeable in the US, where macOS has more than tripled, from yearly 2009 to 2017, with Windows there down to 72.76% and Chrome OS at 3.33%, plus traditional Linux at 1.46%.[75]

There is little openly published information on the device shipments of desktop and laptop computers. Gartner publishes estimates, but the way the estimates are calculated is not openly published. Another source of market share of various operating systems is StatCounter[76] basing its estimate on web use (although this may not be very accurate). Also, sales may overstate usage. Most computers are sold with a pre-installed operating system (OS); some users replace that OS with a different one due to personal preference, or install another OS alongside it and use both. Conversely, sales underestimate usage by not counting unauthorized copies. For example, in 2009, approximately 80% of software sold in China were due to copyright infringement.[77] In 2007, the statistics from an automated update of IE7 for registered Windows computers differed with the observed web browser share, leading one writer to estimate that 25–35% of all Windows XP installations were illegal.[78]

The usage share of Microsoft's latest client operating system – Windows 10 – has been slowly increasing since July/August 2016 (while Windows 7 has had a slight decrease at the same time), reaching around 27.15% in December 2016.[79][80] Windows 10 is closing in on Windows 7 globally, and has already become more popular in Europe and North America.[81][82]

Web analysis shows significant variation in different parts of the world. For example, in North America usage of Windows XP has dropped to 2.06%, but in Africa it is still at 11.02%[83] and Asia at 6.63%[84] (even higher in China, but down to 18.21%, tied with Win10 at second[85]) while going down, and has been overtaken by Windows 10. Conversely, macOS in North America claims 16.82%[86] (17.52%[87] in the US) whereas in Asia it is only 4.4%.[88]

According to a Stack Overflow "Web Developer Survey Results 2016" survey, English-speaking users' "Desktop Operating System"-preference for web-development use is the following (and "by next year's survey fewer than 50% of developers may be using Windows" – that is, for 2017):[89]

Year Microsoft Windows: 52.2% Apple: 26.2% Linux kernel based: 21.7%
10 8/8.1 7 Vista XP macOS Ubuntu Debian   Mint   Fedora Other Linux
2016 20.8% 8.4% 22.5% 0.1% 0.4% 26.2% 12.3% 1.9% 1.7% 1.4% 4.4%


Microsoft's own data on only Windows[edit]

In June 2016, Microsoft claimed Windows 10 had half the market share, then in the US (and UK), of all Windows installations (only), as quoted by BetaNews:

Microsoft's Windows trends page [shows] Windows 10 hit 50 percent in the US (51 percent in the UK, 39 percent globally), while [..] Windows 7 was on 38 percent (36 percent in the UK, 46 percent globally). A big reason for the difference in numbers comes down to how they are recorded. [..] actual OS usage (based on web browsing), while Microsoft records the number of devices Windows 10 is installed on. [..] Microsoft also only records Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, while NetMarketShare includes both XP and Vista.

— BetaNews[90]

As of February 2017, Microsoft's trend page[91] has Windows 10 (for global data) at 47% (for "PC and tablet: All users"), more than any other Windows version, and at 56% (for "PC and tablet: Gamers").

Note, while data seems contradictory and limited, all data is; Microsoft may have good access to computer's installed base statistics, and actual (web) use needs not follow installed base. Also, Microsoft includes tablets (but StatCounter may also for Windows, while it wouldn't for e.g. Android).

Desktop computer games[edit]

Video game store Steam publishes a monthly "Hardware & Software Survey", with the statistics below:

Month Microsoft Windows Mac OS† Linux† Other
January 2017[92] 95.79% 3.31% 0.80%
January 2016[93] 95.39% 3.55% 0.95%
January 2015[94] 95.48% 3.32% 1.09%
January 2014[95] 94.93% 3.47% 0.86% 0.74%

^† These figures are aggregates of the figures reported by Steam, and do not include Steam OS statistics.[96] Also, the statistics reported do not include lesser-used versions, so these figures should be viewed as the minimum usage.

Mobile devices[edit]

Smartphones[edit]

See also: Mobile operating system § Market share

By late 2016, mobile operating systems that can be found on smartphones,[97] include Google's dominant Android (and variants, such as Fire OS on Amazon's devices) and Apple's iOS as the only big competitor, with both combined at c. 99% market share. Other competitors have either given up or have below 1% market share, as with Microsoft with their phone offerings.

These same dominant operating systems also run on tablets, where they have no serious competitors, except Microsoft Windows, at least with any tablet market share to speak of. Windows tablets may not get classified as such by some analysts, and thus barely register; e.g. 2-in-1 PCs may get classified as "desktops", not tablets. These computers have had increasing market share, by sales, but not a big installed base yet as it's a rather new category (and pure Windows tablets weren't historically successful).

According to research by InsightPortal, there is a clear correlation between the GDP per capita of a country and that country's respective smartphone OS market share,[98] Showing the similar correlation for the richest countries and that poorer countries choose Apple's iPhone in lesser numbers. Data from Google however suggests that people in poorer countries are more likely to buy apps on Android.[99]

Smartphone penetration vs. desktop use, differs a lot by country. While some countries like Russia still measure desktop use high, there at 77% (and smartphones at 19%)[100] this ranges down to a bit under 5% in Mali where Android smartphones have just over 95% share.[101] In most western countries, smartphone use is close to, but still under 50%. Section below has more info on regional trends to smartphones having majority use, that has been achieved globally.

See table below for source data
Source Date Method Android
(including forks)		 iOS Windows
(all versions)		 BlackBerry
(all versions)		 Symbian Others
Gartner[102] Q1 2017 Units sold in quarter 86.1% 13.7% N/A N/A N/A 0.2%
Gartner[103] Q4 2016 Units sold in quarter 81.7% 17.9% 0.3% 0.0% N/A 0.1%
Gartner[104] Q3 2016 Units sold in quarter 87.8% 11.5% 0.4% 0.1% N/A 0.2%
Gartner[105] Q2 2016 Units sold in quarter 86.2% 12.9% 0.6% 0.1% N/A 0.2%
comScore[106] (US only) Jan 2016 US subscribers 52.8% 43.6% 2.7% 0.8% N/A N/A
Gartner[107] Q1 2016 Units sold in quarter 84.1% 14.8% 0.7% 0.2% N/A 0.2%
comScore[108] (US only) Jan 2015 US subscribers 53.2% 41.3% 3.6% 1.8% 0.1% N/A
comScore[109] (US only) Jan 2014 US subscribers 51.7% 41.6% 3.2% 3.1% 0.2% N/A
Gartner[110] Q2 2013 Units sold in quarter 79.0% 14.2% 3.3% 2.7% 0.3% 0.6%
Gartner[111] Q1 2013 Units sold in quarter 74.4% 18.2% 2.9% 3.0% 0.6% 1.0%
International Data Corporation[112] Q2 2014 Units shipped in quarter 84.7% 11.7% 2.5% 0.5% N/A 0.7%
International Data Corporation[113] Q1 2013 Units shipped in quarter 75.0% 17.3% 3.2% 2.9% 0.6% 0.0%
StatCounter Global Stats[114] Apr 2017 Browsing (page view) 71.42% 19.95% 0.99% 0.33% NA 7.31%
StatCounter Global Stats[115] Mar 2015 Browsing (page view) 61.94% 22.64% 2.27% NA 6.00% 7.09%
StatCounter Global Stats[116] Aug 2014 Browsing (page view) 54.87% 23.57% 2.36% 1.59% 9.73% 7.87%
StatCounter Global Stats[117] Feb 2014 Browsing (page view) 47.57% 22.97% 2.22% 2.62% 14.86% 6.08%
Wikimedia (includes tablets) Mar 2013 Browsing (page view) 25.93% 66.53% 1.85% 2.02% 3.03% 1.12%
Strategy Analytics[118] Q3 2014 Units shipped in quarter 81.3% 13.4% 4.1% 1.0% N/A 0.2%
Note
Table is only showing mobile OS market share – not the overall market share. Wikimedia Foundation statistics consider tablets as part of the mobile OS market share.

Tablet computers[edit]

Tablet computers, or simply tablets, became a significant OS market share category starting with Apple's iPad. There have been 250 million iPads sold as of January 2015,[119] compared to 174 million Android and 5 million Microsoft Windows-based tablets, with others systems under half a million as of March 2014.[120] In first quarter 2015, smaller Android vendors mostly made up for the huge sales drop of the biggest vendors, Samsung (an Android vendor) and Apple.[121]

Global shipments ("shipments refer to sell-in", that is, wholesale)
Source Date Android iOS Windows Others
Strategy Analytics[122] 2015 68% 22% 10% <0.1%
Gartner[120] 2013 61.9% 36.0% 2.1% <0.1%
Gartner[120] 2012 45.8% 52.8% 1.0% 0.3%
Global tablet web usage
Source Date iOS Android Linux excl. Android Windows RT BlackBerry Others
StatCounter[123] Jul 2015 65.51% 31.36% 2.57% 0.78% 0.2% 0.16%
StatCounter[124] Feb 2015 66.47% 29.6% 2.48% 1.16% 0.17% 0.08%
StatCounter[125] Oct 2014 71.67% 25.62% 2.31% 0.08% 0.19% 0.13%

Since 2016, in South America (and Cuba[126] in North America), Android tablets have gained majority,[127] that only got wider in 2017 and in Asia Android is in 2017 a bit more popular than the iPad that sank to its lowest 49.05% in October 2015.[128][129][130] In Africa, iPad has long lost the battle with Android tablets much more popular while elsewhere the iPad has a safe margin.

As of March 2015, Android has made steady gains to becoming the most popular (is already, in some continents) tablet operating system (based on StatCounter's web use as a proxy, but sales numbers would also confirm);[131] that is the trend in many countries (at least counties where the market isn't saturated) having already gained majority in big countries (India at 63.25%,[132] and in Indonesia at 62.22%[133]) and in the African continent with Android at 62.22% (first to gain Android majority in late 2014),[134] with steady gains from 20.98% in August 2012[135] (Egypt at 62.37%,[136] Zimbabwe at 62.04%[136]), and South America at 51.09% in July 2015.[137] (Peru at 52.96%[138]). Asia is at 46%.[139] In Nepal, Android gained majority lead in November 2014 but lost it down to 41.35% with iOS at 56.51%.[140] In Taiwan, as of October 2016, Android after having gained a confident majority, has been on a losing streak.[141] China is a major exception to Android gaining market share in Asia (there Android phablets are much more popular than Android tablets, while similar devices get classified as smartphones) where the iPad/iOS is at 82.84% in March 2015.[142]

Crossover to smartphones having majority share[edit]

See also: Usage share of web browsers § Crossover to smartphones having majority share

According to StatCounter web use statistics (a proxy for all use), smartphones are more popular than desktop computers globally (and Android in particular more popular than Windows).

The desktop is still popular in many countries (while overall down to 44.9% in the first quarter of 2017[143]), smartphones are more popular even in many developed countries (or about to be in more). A few countries on all continents are desktop-minority with Android more popular than Windows; many, e.g. Spain and Poland in Europe, and about half of the countries in South America, and many in North America, e.g. Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti; up to most countries in Asia and Africa[144] with smartphone-majority because of Android, Poland and Turkey in Europe highest with 57.68% and 62.33%, respectively. In Ireland, smartphone use at 45.55% outnumbers desktop use and mobile as a whole gains majority when including the tablet share at 9.12%.[145][146] Spain is also slightly desktop-minority.

The range of measured mobile web use varies a lot by country, and a StatCounter press release recognizes "India amongst world leaders in use of mobile to surf the internet"[147] (of the big countries) where the share is around (or over) 80%[148] and desktop is at 19.56%, with Russia trailing with 17.8% mobile use (and desktop the rest).

Smartphones (alone, without tablets), first gained majority in December 2016 (desktop-majority was lost the month before), and it wasn't a Christmas-time fluke, as while close to majority after smartphone majority happened again in March 2017.[149]

In the week from 7–13 November 2016, smartphones alone (without tablets) overtook desktop, for the first time (for a short period; non-full-month).[150] Mobile-majority applies to countries such as Paraguay in South America, Poland in Europe and Turkey; and most of Asia and Africa. Some of the world is still desktop-majority, with e.g. in the United States at 54.89% (but no not on all days).[151] However, in some territories of the United States, such as Puerto Rico,[152] desktop is way under majority, with Windows under 30% overtaken by Android.

On 22 October 2016 (and subsequent weekends), mobile showed majority.[153] Since 27 October, the desktop hasn't shown majority, not even on weekdays. And smartphones alone have showed majority since 23 December to the end of the year, with the share topping at 58.22% on Christmas Day.[154] To the "mobile"-majority share then of smartphones, tablets could be added giving a 63.22% majority. While an unusually high top, a similarly high also happened on Monday 17 April 2017, with then only smartphones share slightly lower and tablet share slightly higher, with them combined at 62.88%.

Formerly, according to StatCounter press release, the world has turned desktop-minority;[155] as of October 2016, at about 49% desktop use for that month, but mobile wasn't ranked higher, tablet share had to be added to it to exceed desktop share.

For the Christmas season (i.e. temporarily, while desktop-minority remains and smartphone-majority on weekends[156][157]), the last two weeks in December 2016, Australia (and Oceania in general)[158] was desktop-minority for the first time for an extended period, i.e. every day from 23 December.[159]

In South America, smartphones alone took majority from desktops on Christmas Day,[157] but for a full-week-average, desktop is still at least at 58%.[160]

The UK desktop-minority dropped down to 44.02% on Christmas Day and the for the eight days around to the end of the year.[161] Ireland joined some other European countries with smartphone-majority, for three days after Christmas, topping that day at 55.39%.[162][163]

In the US, desktop-minority happened for three days on and around Christmas (while a longer four-day stretch happened in November, and happens frequently on weekends).[164]

According to StatCounter web use statistics (a proxy for all use), in the week from 7–13 November 2016, "mobile" (meaning smartphones) alone (without tablets) overtook desktop, for the first time, with them highest ranked at 52.13% (on 27 November 2016)[165] or up to 49.02% for a full week.[166][167] Mobile-majority applies to countries such as Paraguay in South America, Poland in Europe and Turkey; and the continents Asia and Africa. Large regions of the rest of the world are still desktop-majority, while on some days, the United States,[168] (and North America as a whole)[169] isn't; the US is desktop-minority up to four days in a row,[170] and up to a five-day average.[171] Other examples, of desktop-minority on some days, include the UK,[169] Ireland,[172] Australia[173] (and Oceania as a whole); in fact, at least one country on every continent[174][175][176] has turned desktop-minority (for at least a month). On 22 October 2016 (and subsequent weekends), mobile has shown majority.[177] Since 27 October, the desktop hasn't shown majority, not even on weekdays.

Previously, according to a StatCounter press release, the world has turned desktop-minority;[178] as of October 2016, at about 49% desktop use for that month,[179][180] with desktop-minority stretching up to an 18-weeks/4-months period from 28 June to 31 October 2016,[181][182] while whole of July, August or September 2016, showed desktop-majority (and many other long sub-periods in the long stretch showed desktop-minority; similarly only Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are desktop-minority). The biggest continents, Asia and Africa, have shown vast mobile-majority for long time (any day of the week), as well as several individual countries elsewhere have also turned mobile-majority: Poland, Albania (and Turkey)[183] in Europe and Paraguay and Bolivia[184] in South America.[185]

According to StatCounter's web use statistics, Saturday 28 May 2016, was the day when smartphones ("mobile" at StatCounter, than now counts tablets separately) became a most used platform, ranking first, at 47.27%, above desktops.[186][187] The next day, desktops slightly outnumbered "mobile" (unless counting tablets with; some analysts count tablets with smartphones or separately while others with desktops – even when most tablets are iPad or Android, not Windows devices).[188]

Since Sunday 27 March 2016, the first day the world dipped to desktop-minority,[189] it has happened almost every week, with by week 11–17 July 2016, the world was desktop-minority,[190] followed by the next week, and in fact also for a three-week period.[191] The trend is still stronger on weekends, with e.g. 17 July 2016 showed desktop at 44.67%, "mobile" at 49.5% plus tablets at 5.7%.[192] Recent weekly data shows a downward trend for desktops.[193][194]

According to StatCounter web use statistics (a proxy for overall use), on weekends desktops worldwide lose about 5 percent points, e.g. down to 51.46% on 15 August 2015, with the loss in (relative) web use going to mobile (and also a tiny increase for tablets),[195] mostly because Windows 7, ranked 1st on workdays, declines in web use, with it shifting to Android and lesser degree to iOS.[196]

Two continents, have already crossed over to mobile-majority (because of Android), based on StatCounters web use statistics. In June 2015, Asia became the first continent where mobile overtook desktop[197] (followed by Africa in August;[198] while Nigeria had mobile majority in October 2011,[199][200] because of Symbian – that later had 51% share, then Series 40 dominating, followed by Android as dominating operating system[201]) and as far back as October 2014, they had reported this trend on a large scale in a press release: "Mobile usage has already overtaken desktop in several countries including India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia".[202] In India, desktop went from majority, in July 2012, down to 32%.[203] In Bangladesh desktop went from majority, in May 2013, down to 17%, with Android alone now accounting for majority web use.[204] Just a handful of African countries are still desktop-majority[205] and many have a large mobile majority including Ethiopia and Kenya, where mobile usage is over 72%.[206]

The popularity of mobile use worldwide, has been driven by the huge popularity increase of Android in Asian countries, where Android is highest ranked operating system in the statistics in virtually every south-east Asian country,[207] while it also ranks most popular in almost every African country. Poland has been desktop-minority since April 2015,[208] because of vastly most popular Android there,[209] and other European countries, such as Albania (and Turkey), have also crossed over. South America continent is a little far of losing desktop-majority, but the first country there, Paraguay, has lost it as of March 2015.[210] Android and mobile browsing in general has also gotten hugely popular in all other continents where desktop has a huge (mostly saturated) desktop base and the trend to mobile is not as clear as a fraction of the total web use.

While some analysts count tablets with desktops (as some of them run Windows), others count them with mobile phones (as the vast majority of tablets run so-called mobile operating systems, such as Android or iOS on the iPad). iPad has a clear lead globally, but has clearly lost the majority to Android in South America,[211] and a number of Eastern European countries such as Poland; lost virtually all African countries and has lost the majority twice in Asia, but gained the majority back (while many individual countries, e.g. India and most of the middle East, have clear Android majority on tablets).[212] Android on tablets is thus second most popular after the iPad.[213]

In March 2015, for the first time in the US the number of mobile-only adult internet users exceeded the number of desktop-only internet users with 11.6% of the digital population only using mobile compared to 10.6% only using desktop; this also means the majority, 78%, use both desktop and mobile to access the internet.[214] Few smaller countries in North America, such as Haiti (because of Android) have gone mobile majority (mobile went to up to 72.35%, and is at 64.43% in February 2016).[215]

Revenue[edit]

The region with the largest Android usage[9] also has the largest mobile revenue.[216]

Mobile App revenue
2016
APAC $38.4B
Amer $14.2B
EMEA $9.2B

Public servers on the Internet[edit]

Servers in a colocation centre

Internet based servers' market share can be measured with statistical surveys of publicly accessible servers, such as web servers, mail servers[217] or DNS servers on the Internet: the operating systems powering such servers are found by inspecting raw response messages. This method gives insight only into market share of operating systems that are publicly accessible on the Internet.

There will be differences in the result depending on how the sample is done and observations weighted. Usually the surveys are not based on a random sample of all IP numbers, domain names, hosts or organisations, but on servers found by some other method.[citation needed] Additionally, many domains and IP numbers may be served by one host and some domains may be served by several hosts or by one host with several IP numbers.

Source Date Unix, Unix-like Microsoft Windows References
All Linux FreeBSD Unknown
W3Techs Feb 2015 67.8% 35.9% 0.95% 30.9% 32.3% [218][219]
Security Space Feb 2014 <79.3% N/A >20.7% [220][221]
W3Cook May 2015 98.3% 96.6% 1.7% 0% 1.7% [222]
Note
W3Techs checked the top ten million web servers daily from June 2013, but W3Techs's definition of "website" differs a bit from Alexa's definition; the "top 10 million" websites are actually fewer than 10 million. W3Techs claims that these differences "have no statistical significance".[223]
Note
W3Cook checks the top one million web servers monthly, taken from the Alexa ranking, using HTTP headers, DNS records, and WHOIS data, among other sources.[224]
Note
Revenue comparisons often include "operating system software, other bundled software"[225] and are not appropriate for usage comparison as the Linux operating system doesn't cost anything (including "other bundled software"), except if optionally using commercial distributions such as Red Hat (in that case, cost of software for all software bundled with hardware has to be known for all operating systems involved, and subtracted). In cases where no-cost Linux is used, such comparisons underestimate Linux server popularity and overestimate other proprietary operating systems such as Windows.

Mainframes[edit]

IBM's System z10

The most common operating system for mainframes is IBM's z/OS.[citation needed]

Linux as guest on mainframes[edit]

Operating systems for IBM System z generation hardware include IBM's bundled proprietary z/OS,[226] Linux on System z.

Gartner reported on 23 December 2008, that Linux on System z was used on approximately 28% of the "customer z base" and that they expected this to increase to over 50% in the following five years.[227]

Of Linux on System z, Red Hat and Novell compete to sell RHEL and SLES respectively.

  • Prior to 2006, Novell claimed a market share of 85% or more.
  • Red Hat has since claimed 18.4% in 2007 and 37% in 2008.[228]
  • Gartner reported at the end of 2008 that Novell had an 80% share of mainframe Linux.[227]

Supercomputers[edit]

Supercomputer OS family – 1993–2017 systems share according to TOP500[229]

The TOP500 project lists and ranks the 500 fastest supercomputers for which benchmark results are submitted, and by November 2017 they all use Linux. It publishes the collected data twice a year.

In June 2017, two AIX computers held rank 493 and 494,[230] the last non-Linux systems before they dropped off the list.

Source Date Method Linux AIX (Unix) References
TOP500 Nov 2017 Systems share 100% N/A
TOP500 Nov 2017 Performance share 100% N/A
TOP500 Jun 2017 Systems share 99.6% 0.4%
TOP500 Jun 2017 Performance share 99.88% 0.12%

Historically all kinds of Unix operating systems dominated, and in the end only AIX barely survived on the list (and few other non-Unix previously) after Linux had taken the dominant role.

Source Date Method Linux Unix (not incl. Linux) Mixed Microsoft Windows BSD based (incl. in Unix) References
TOP500 Nov 2016 Systems share 99.6% 0.4% N/A N/A N/A
TOP500 Nov 2014 Systems share 97.0% 2.6% 0.2%[231] 0.2% N/A [232]
TOP500 Nov 2014 Performance share 98.23% 1.67% 0.06% 0.06% N/A [232]
TOP500 Nov 2013 Systems share 96.4% 2.4% 0.8% 0.4% 0.2% [233]
TOP500 Nov 2013 Performance share 98.0% 1.4% 0.47% 0.13% 0.05% [233]

Market share by category[edit]

Category Source Date Linux Unix and Unix-like (not incl. Linux) Windows In-house Other
Desktop, laptop Net Applications[234] Jan 2018 1.93% (Ubuntu, etc.) 9.95% (macOS) 87.79% (10, 8.1, 7) 0.33%
Smartphone, tablet StatCounter Global Stats[235] Jan 2018 71.43% (Android) 23.01% (iOS) 5.56%
Server (web) W3Techs[236] Apr 2017 66.6–37% (of the known-for-sure lower bound of Linux share: Ubuntu 35.8%, Debian 31.9%, CentOS 20.6%, Red Hat (RHEL) 3.3%, Gentoo 2.7%, Fedora 0.9%) c. 1% (BSD; Unix-like could be up to 30.18%, then "Unknown" needs to be known to be not Linux)
66.6% Unix-like share is mostly Linux; the "Unknown" part, there-of 43.1%, is assumed to be also Linux (for upper bound of that column), could be some non-Linux or e.g. any of the named Linux distributions in the Linux column.		 33.5% (Windows Server 2016, W2K12, W2K8)
Supercomputer TOP500 Nov 2017 100% (Custom)
Mainframe Gartner[228] Dec 2008 28% (SLES, RHEL) 72% (z/OS) UNIX System Services
Video game consoles VGChartz[237] Jan 2018 35.04% (PS4, PS3, Vita, PSP) 16.63% (Xbox One, Xbox 360) 48.32% (Switch, Wii U, Wii, 3DS, DS) 0%
Embedded UBM Electronics[238] Mar 2012 29.44% (Android plus other non-Android Linux) 4.29% (QNX) 11.65% (WCE 7) 13.5% ("Inhouse/custom" is most popular, single choice) 41.1%
Note
1. Video game consoles section only includes consoles manufactured by Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
2. Embedded is a vast category, which has subcategories that include automotive, avionics, health, medical equipment, consumer electronics, intelligent homes, telecommunications. The aggregated information above may be very different for each subcategory taken separately.

See also[edit]

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External links[edit]

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