14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Apple are going head to head in a wide variety of tech industry sectors, but when it comes to the desktop operating system world, it looks like the Redmond-based software giant simply doesn’t have any reason to be worried.
Windows has long been the dominating PC operating system, with almost no threat from Linux and macOS, and a new batch of statistics from NetMarketShare indicate that Microsoft still doesn’t have a reason to be concerned that it’s going to lose the leading position in this side of the market.
Specifically, Windows is currently the top choice when it comes to PC operating systems with a market share of no less than 91.35 percent, while Apple’s macOS is second with 6.40 percent.
Windows vs. macOS in 2017
As far as the recent performance goes, macOS started the year with 6.32 percent market share, but then dropped to 6.19 percent the next month. It then increased to 6.27 percent in March, before eventually declining once again to 6.25 percent.
Windows, on the other hand, was running on 91.41 percent in January and improved to 91.76 percent in February, while it then declined to 91.59 percent a month later. Microsoft’s OS finally recovered to 91.66 percent and dropped 0.02 percent in May.
The top Windows version right now is Windows 7, which has a market share of 49.46 percent, while the most popular version of Apple’s operating system is 10.12 and running on 3.59 percent of PCs. This means the top macOS version has fewer users than Windows XP, which has nearly double its market share, with 5.66 percent.
Without a doubt, Microsoft will continue to dominate the desktop OS market many years from now, with no real threat from Linux or macOS. Microsoft, however, has a long way to go to become competitive in other parts of the operating system war, as is the case of mobile, where Android and iOS are both dominating the industry.
