Mobile and Desktop Operating Systems Market Share

Have you ever wondered which is more popular – Windows or Mac OS?

Have you ever pondered who is winning in the Android vs iOS race for market share?

Have you ever thought about the value of Google Chromebook in the educational system?

If the answer to at least one of those questions is yes, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve got exactly the operating systems market share stats you need.

• Windows 10 has a desktop/laptop market share of 43.53%, making it the most popular desktop OS.
• Windows 7 comes second, at 41.59%.
• 3.2% of Windows PCs still run Windows XP.
• macOS Catalina has a market share of 77.23% among Mac users.
• The current Linux desktop share is about 2.4%.
• 85% of smartphones globally run on Android.
• iOS 12.1 has 55.39% of the market share.
• Windows Phone’s market share fell down to a measly 0.1% in 2017

There we go.

Oh, you want more?

Then simply scroll down.

Desktop Operating Systems Market Share

Windows

• In January 2022, Windows had a desktop market share of 73.72%. (Source: StatCounter)
• Windows 10 has a desktop/laptop market share of 82.49% of all Windows-based systems, as of January 2022. This established it as the most popular operating system on the market. (Source: StatCounter)
• Windows 7 is used by 12.91%. (Source: StatCounter)
• 3.12% of users rely on Windows 8.1. (Source: StatCounter)
• 0.76% of people use Windows 8. (Source: StatCounter)
• 0.51% of Windows PCs still ran on Windows XP.(Source: WIRED)
• Microsoft’s revenue for 2020 was $143.015 billion. That is a 13.65% increase since 2019. (Source: Macrotrends)
• Microsoft’s revenue for Q4 of 2020 was $37.154 billion. (Source: Macrotrends)

Mac

• OS X holds a 15.33% desktop market share in January 2022. (Source: StatCounter)
• macOS holds 9.54% of the desktop/laptop OS market share in September 2021.(Source: NetMarketShare)
• macOS Catalina had a market share of 81.7% among MacOS users in January 2022. However, Apple reports the latest version of their OS, Big Sur under the name of Catalina, so this number is certainly incorrect. It's the only one we have at the moment.(Source: NetMarketShare)
• macOS Mojave holds the second position, with a 6.23% market share. (Source: StatCounter)
• macOS High Sierra comes third, with a global market share of 5.62%. (Source: StatCounter)
• Apple Mac computers reached $5,513 million in revenue in Q4 of 2018. (Source: Statista)

Google Chrome OS

• In 2016, Chrome OS’s’ K-12 market share reached 51%, which marked the first time it surpassed Apple. (Source: USA TODAY)
• In 2018, Chrome OS had a 60% market share among all laptops and tablets in US K-12 classrooms. (Source: CNBC)
• According to Google, up to 30 million Chromebooks are being used in education currently. (Source: 9to5Google)
• Chromebook’s market size is expected to go over 17 million units by 2023. (Source: Global Market Insights)
• Chrome OS has a desktop market share of 2.18% in 2022. (Source: StatCounter)

Linux

• The current Linux desktop market share is between 1.74 – 2.18%, according to the usage share of operating systems. (Source: W3Cook)
• In April 2019, Linux’s desktop market share was estimated to be 1.63%. (Source: StatCounter)
• Of all Linux users, 38.2% use Ubuntu as of May 2019. (Source: W3Techs)
• 21.5% of users rely on Debian. (Source: W3Techs)
• CentOS is used by 17.5%. (Source: W3Techs)
• 2.2% use Red Hat. (Source: W3Techs)
• 1.8% of Linux fans run Gentoo. (Source: W3Techs)

Others

• FreeBSD has a desktop market share of 0.01% as of April 2019. (Source: StatCounter)
• An unknown OS has had a 6.17% desktop market share since at least the beginning of 2022. (Source: StatCounter)

The conclusion here is that Windows has the highest desktop market share among operating systems. Windows servers might not be as popular as Linux ones, but on Dekstop, Windows rules supreme.

Unsurprisingly, Mac comes second, with macOS Mojave being the most popular among Apple users.

Google’s Chrome OS might not be the most used OS, not by a longshot, but it does dominate the educational statistics.

Linux’s percentages have had no drastic changes in the past few years. As most regular readers of Hosting Tribunal know, Linux dominates the world of hosting and powers all supercomputers but lags severely behind in personal computers.

Mobile Operating Systems Market Share

Android

• 70.01% of smartphones globally run on Android. (Source: StatCounter)
• Android 11.0 dominates the Android market with a 35.37% market share. (Source: StatCounter)
• 10.0 comes second, with a market share of 27%. (Source: StatCounter)
• 9.0 Pie takes third place, with 13.46%. (Source: StatCounter)
• 8.1 Oreo is on 7.06% of Android devices. (Source: StatCounter)
• Android’s smartphone market share is expected to reach 85.5% in 2022. (Source: IDC)

iOS

• iOS has 17.42% of the operating system market share worldwide, as of January 2022. (Source: StatCounter)
• Additionally, it holds 23.96% of the global market when counting only mobile OS. (Source: StatCounter)
• iOS 15.1 has a 42.59% market share in January 2022. (Source: StatCounter)
• Apple reported revenue of $58 billion for Q2 of 2019. That’s a 5% decline from a year ago. (Source: Apple)

And here we are, witnessing again the Android vs iOS race for market share.

The rivalry is notorious.

For now, it seems Android is winning comfortably. We have Android with 70.01% vs iOS with 23.96% of the market share.

The market competition, however, shows no signs of stopping any time soon.

The Programmers' Most Used

• As of 2016, 26.2% of programmers use Mac OS X.(Source: Stack Overflow)
• 22.5% of programmers work on Windows 7. (Source: Stack Overflow)
• Linux is used by 21.7% of programmers. (Source: Stack Overflow)
• 20.8% of programmers use Windows 10. (Source: Stack Overflow)
• 8.4% use Windows 8. (Source: Stack Overflow)

Windows 10 might be enjoying the highest operating systems market share, but statistics show programmers prefer Mac OS X when it comes to working. Windows 7 comes second, Linux rounds up the top 3, followed by Windows 10 at the fourth place.

The Game Developers’ Choice

• As of 2018, 53% of game developers were working on creating games for PC and Mac. (Source: WePC)
• 38% of developers were working on games for smartphones and tablets. (Source: WePC)
• Games for PS4/Pro were developed by 27% of developers. (Source: WePC)
• 13% of the developers were working on games for web browsers. (Source: WePC)
• 7% of game developers were creating games for Linux. (Source: WePC)

Most games still get developed for Windows and Mac. Developers enjoy having that much processing power available for their creations, and the end result is attractive.

Not surprisingly, only 7% of game developers pay any attention to Linux. The free OS has a fairly small market share, which spells out a small ROI for any Linux game. (Sorry, Linux fans!)

Richest Operating System Providers

• As of January 2021, the total value of all Apple goods was over $2 trillion. It was the first company in the world to hit this mark back in August 2020. (Source: Forbes)
• Microsoft’s total value is estimated at $1.66 trillion. (Source: MacroTrends)
• The value of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is calculated at $1.22 trillion. (Source: MacroTrends)

Final Top 3

Apple might not hold the biggest operating systems market share, but it sure is on top of the game, with the highest total value of all goods. Microsoft comes second, followed by Google. The big three are ruling the OS world.

So, time to answer the questions from the intro.

Between Windows and Mac, Windows is the sure winner in terms of operating systems market share. However, many professionals prefer macOS.

That said, when it comes to education, they all bow to Chrome OS.

Android is currently in the lead on mobile and it intends to remain there. iOS aims to retain its premium status as it only gets featured on high-end devices – this singlehandedly leaves it out of the race for the top.

Whew! That was a lot of information.

Hopefully, you found it as fascinating as I did.

Till next time!