14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Apple are competing against each other in a variety of businesses, and the software giant has long tried to get closer to its rival in both phones and tablets, but we probably all agree that it pretty much failed to succeed with the first part of this plan.
And while Microsoft has more or less disappointed in phones, the company’s tablet business is improving substantially these days, and not only is the Surface lineup becoming more successful, but the non-Microsoft Windows tablets out there are also benefitting from better sales.
IDC’s latest forecast points to continued growth for Windows in the coming years, with 2016 performance to bring Microsoft’s operating system the very first double-digit tablet share in history.
The analyst house estimates that Windows is likely to reach 11.3 percent in the tablet business this year, but although this is an important achievement, it’s still very far behind rivals Android and iOS, which will continue to lead the market in this exact order. Android is likely to close the year with 66.2 percent market share while iOS should be at 22.4 percent.
Windows to continue growing through 2020
And Windows isn’t going to stop here. IDC estimates that Microsoft’s tablet operating system will continue growing through 2020 and will go after iOS to challenge Apple for the second position in the tablet business.
Windows is going to eat mostly Android’s market share, as Google’s OS will drop to 57.8 percent if IDC’s estimates prove to be true. Apple’s iOS, on the other hand, will maintain its share and will improve it slightly, reaching 22.9 percent in 2020.
But Windows will have the most impressive increase and will reach 19.3 percent, thus getting very close to iOS.
Depending on how the market evolves in the coming years, Windows could improve even more, but it’s very clear that Apple’s not going to just wait and watch Microsoft’s operating system grow bigger. There are several new iPad models on their way, so the tablet business, although saturated, is going to witness another fight between two of the world’s biggest tech companies.