“Google’s Android is now the most popular OS in the world across all hardware platforms, having barely overtaken Microsoft Windows in March, according to Web analytics research published on Monday,” Roger Fingas reports for AppleInsider.
“Android managed 37.93 percent versus Windows’s 37.91, according to StatCounter,” Fingas reports. “Apple’s iOS was a distant third at only 13.09 percent, while macOS/OS X took just 5.17 percent.”
“Windows marketshare has been on a steady decline since 2012, when it was running on over 80 percent of internet-connected devices,” Fingas reports. “StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen linked the current situation to the growing popularity of smartphones, the decline of desktop and laptop computers, and the importance of the high-population Asian market… In North America, Windows retained its lead with a 39.5 percent share, followed by iOS at 25.7 percent, and Android at 21.2 percent.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The only thing surprising is that it took this long.
SEE ALSO:
Apple shipped 1,591,092,250 computers in its first 40 years, more than any other computer company – March 31, 2016
“MacDailyNews Take: The only thing surprising is that it took this long.”
Guess that shows how large the entrenched Windows installations are.
I wonder how much of that usage is by bots and malware that the users don’t know about.
While possible, I doubt StatCounter takes data from sites bots and malware tend to access nor would the authors of those type of apps allow StatCounter on their sites.
An entry from their FAQ describing the methodology used:
http://gs.statcounter.com/faq#methodology
I wonder that about *all* usage statistics. Still, it makes sense: it’s a mobile world, and Android is the lowest common denominator. I don’t personally feel that’s anything to brag about, and the Windows comparison is apt: all most of those folks did with Windows was Facebook or check their email, maybe an occasional Word doc. A PC is no longer a requirement for those things. It doesn’t mean diddly squat in terms of the actual quality, security, or usefulness of Android. Most of them probably have no idea that Android is even what they are using.
The link to StatCounter’s FAQ I posted above claims their stats are only from sites that have StatCounter installed and have filtered out bot access. Assuming that is true inclusion of bot and malware access in the report may have pushed iOS and Mac access to low single digits.
Large swaths of the developing world (sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, poorer parts of Latin America) have essentially skipped landline phones, landline broadband and desktop computing. With smartphones delivering large parts of functionality for which desktop computers were used some ten years ago (surfing web, online shopping, sharing photos and other info), there was no need to spend on developing landline-based infrastructure. Mobile operators jumped in, and with the agility of their business model (and comparably low initial outlay for the infrastructure), quickly built out coverage as needed. Even countries in transition (former Soviet lands and ex-Yugoslavia) ended up developing mobile networks much faster than wired broadband, with some getting meaningful market penetration of landline broadband only in the last ten years (and full mobile coverage over 15 years ago).
There are likely still plenty of disconnected Windows desktops in those lands, but they are isolated islands (as many as there may be), and will not be counted in these surveys.
Same goes for Point-of-Sale terminals running some flavour of Windows.
Since when has elitist condescending MDN cared about numbers of users?
Since Apple’s Services became the equivalent of a Fortune 100 company.
Mac OS at 1/7th Windows. That’s progress.
Aren’t Windows just ‘Games’ computers?
I doubt anybody is doing brain Surgery on a cell phone.
Oranges and Apples if you will forgive the pun. Real Computers and computing devices, if you will. One Buffy uses to text her friends and the other is being used to manage your retirement fund. One is being used to shop online and the other manages the supply chain for the store. One is being used to take and send pictures of ones Johnson and the other being used to design a new generation of Rocket Engine to go to Mars.
Just to put the whole thing in perspective. This is why we need desktop computers running real OSes without closed up file systems, Tim Cook. This is why we need computers with a variety of WIRED INPUTS instead of one USB-C connection. This is what we need computers with something beyond Vampire Video.
I don’t know… Everywhere I worked (37 years of full-time employment), desktop computers are overwhelmingly used as dumb terminals. In the 80s and 90s, that was all we had (IBM 3270 terminals, then PCs running 3720 emulators!). Eventually, office apps made full desktop a necessity, but when I look at office landscape today, vast majority of companies, your typical white-collar stuff (insurance, banking, accounting, etc) uses desktop computers for accessing the web-based tools, in addition to the most basic Office stuff (Word/Excel/PowerPoint). These web-based tools cover a wide range of applications (ERM, CRM, content management, etc), and in many large organisations, these are custom-built solutions that provide the necessary workflow for a specific business model. The common property is that they are all browser-based, which means that they can be easily used from ANY modern computing device (including a $30 no-name android tablet, or a $15 Raspberry Pi computer).
If we look at the entire enterprise desktop computing user base, we could easily replace 95% of those desktop computers with a Raspberry Pi devices ($15 Linux-flavoured computers the size of a deck of cards) with zero loss of mission-critical functionality. Especially that so many enterprises have already moved to a Google Docs solution (instead of MS Office), where everything happens in the browser.
My point is, yes, desktop computers are still needed, but NOT for the 95% of tasks for which they are used today.
Now, the other 5% needs that desktop muscle. And there, we have video editing, audio editing, CAD/CAM, graphic design, and all sorts of heavy-lifting scientific applications that require a lot of CPU (and GPU) power, plenty of RAM and fast HD. For this, Macs were always far superior than anything else out there. The fundamental problem is that this segment of the market is simply too small to justify dedicating enormous development resources.
The computing market of today doesn’t really need desktops anymore. Only a tiny fraction does. I shudder to think what would happen if Apple decided to abandon the Mac (I’m currently on my 18th Mac, since buying my first PowerMac 8100 in 1994). But it is a distant possibility, judging by the trends in computing (and the stats cited in the article above).
We use thin clients as well for many purposes, but also have a significant investment on Workstation grade devices.
For security reasons I doubt many would be willing to use any Android device they could not lock down.
The base model Mac mini would make a wonderful Thin Client and is reasonable secure. Why Apple does not make it as such seems like leaving money on the table.
The same is true for WiFi only versions of the iPhone that could be used on campus on a closed network for apps and Telecom. Apple could make iPhones without the cell Radio (WiFi Only) and make a killing selling them to enterprise customers- we pay outrageous prices for our VoIP Wi-Fi Phones.
Since the days of mainframes and dumb terminals, the back and forth of how much computing power to put on each of the client and server sides has existed. We’ve reached both extremes at one time or another with pros and cons for each model. It simply depends on what usage case you have as to which balance you have to strike between them for your own systems.
And the sad part of all this is Microsoft still benefits regardless if Windows or Android is winning since the device makers ( of the latter) have to pay for the privilege: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/11/01/microsoft-android-patent-income/#59c4e9835c6c
Seems patents have a maximum life of 20 years. I guess MS still has over a decade worth of payments coming in. 😛
… Or, as we Apple fanatics learned decades ago:
Turds Float
[Is this seriously my species? Seriously?! Can I progress to a higher life form now, please?]
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