14 DAY TRIAL // Windows was, is, and will continue to be the top desktop operating system out there despite Microsoft rivals every once in a while promising to launch alternatives capable of crushing Windows once and for all.
Statistics provided by NetMarketShare, however, show that in 2017 Windows remained the top choice for desktop users, but the more worrying thing for Microsoft is that Apple finally scored an important increase in this particular market.
More concerning is that while macOS increased its market share, Windows actually dropped, so the gap between the two desktop operating systems, despite still huge, was reduced last year.
Specifically, Windows started the year with a share of 89.03%, which means that approximately 8.9 PCs in 10 were running Microsoft’s desktop operating system. Windows, however, dropped to 88.51% in December, after previously reaching a record low point of 88.0% in October.
macOS was holding a market share of 7.87% in January 2017, growing all the way up to 9.02% in the last month of the year. The personal best of Apple’s desktop platform was 9.05% in November.
The macOS and Linux alternatives
Microsoft clearly has no reason to be worried about at this point, though it’s pretty clear that macOS growing, especially given the price of devices running it and the limited availability of the platform, should at least make the software giant pay more attention to how its rival performs throughout 2018.
Windows is also the target of Linux, the open-source alternative that has often been promoted as the perfect and affordable replacement to Microsoft’s desktop operating system.
Statistics, however, show that Linux has failed to increase its market share last year, dropping from 2.21% in January to just 2.12% in December. Without a doubt, there are many users who switched from Windows to Linux in 2017, but for the time being, the open-source platform is far from being considered a threat to Microsoft’s desktop business.