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The above graph represents the world’s most popular operating systems by market share, starting from January 2009 to the recently completed month. Windows, Android, iOS, OS X and Linux are currently dominating the global OS market, across all platforms (desktop, mobile, tablet, console).
Total OS Market Share Worldwide by Month: In-Depth
| Region | Worldwide |
| Source | StatCounter |
| Graph ID | 784 |
| Duration | Jan 2009 – Apr 2020 |
Google Android has been dominating the global OS market since March 2017. As of April 2020, Android OS market share stood at 39.13%, across all platforms. That’s nearly 1.71 percent point increase from April 2019.
Microsoft Windows is the second widely used operating system across all platforms, worldwide. However, the market share of Windows declined a notable 4.95 percent point, from 38.05% in April 2019 to 33.1% in April 2020. Windows OS is also the most popular operating system for desktops and laptops worldwide.
Apple iOS is the world’s third most popular operating system, that runs only on Apple devices (iPhones, iPads). In April 2020, Apple iOS accounted for nearly 17.23% of the total OS market worldwide, representing 3.48 percent point increase from the same period last year. It is important to note that iOS is also the second most popular operating system for mobile device market.
The OS X is also an operating system developed by Apple Inc for Mac computers. Overall, OS X is the 4th widely used operating system, while in desktop OS market, it is the 2nd widely used operating system. As of April 2020, Apple OS X commands 8.21% share of the combined desktop, laptop, mobile and console OS market, worldwide.
Rest all other operating systems accounts for less than 1% market share.
About Operating Systems: Additional Information
An operating system (OS), in its most general sense, is a program that manages hardware and allows a user to run other programs on a computing device.
While the research in the field of Operating System started in 1950, the first major breakthrough came only in 1962 when the first recognisable modern Operating System was built. Atlas Supervisor was the first program that successfully managed hardware to provide a controlled environment to various programs.
Almost every device that contains a processor is controlled by the Operating System nowadays. While there are many companies who have either launched or working on their own Operating System, there are three tech giants who dominate the global Operating System market.
Desktop Market is completely controlled by Windows OS created by Microsoft. In the last 3 decades, Microsoft introduced various versions of Windows OS, latest being Windows 10 OS. While almost every other company work on Windows OS, Apple has got its own Mac OS.
In the mobile space, Google’s Android is the undisputed king due to the strong app ecosystem and availability to other smartphone manufacturers. Unlike Android, Apple has decided to keep its own operating system for mobile devices, named as iOS, restricted only for devices made by the company itself.
The above graph is a part of Dazeinfo GraphFarm – the most trusted source of hundreds of thousands of market graphs. Our team of researchers mines millions of data points every month to bring the most updated and validated set of data points representing the comprehensive view in a graphical format. From mobile to e-commerce, from Retail to healthcare, from startups to SMEs we have carefully designed thousands of graphs for those who value and understand the importance of data visualisation.
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