Hmmm… Interesting report from Good Morning Silicon Valley.
The latest numbers from Web tracking outfit Net Applications indicate the market share of Windows in November dropped to a level not seen since the days of Windows 3.11 in the early ’90’s. Now, before you go breaking out that bottle of cognac you’ve been saving to celebrate the end of the Microsoft hegemony, note that this slide still leaves Windows, by Net Applications’ tally, with a market share of 89.62 percent, a level most companies can’t even dream of. Still, that’s down from a high around 97.5 percent back around 2002-2003, and a drop of 2.8 percentage points in the past 12 months alone. The major beneficiary of the defections was Apple; Net Applications said the Mac OS market share last month was 8.87 percent, up from 6.80 percent in November of last year and up from 3.2 percent in November 2004. The survey also showed gains for Linux, shown with a 0.83 percent share, up from 0.57 percent a year ago 0.30 percent in November 2004. And it’s not like Microsoft could find any consolation in Net Applications’ browser share figures, which showed Internet Explorer dipping below 70 percent, while Mozilla’s Firefox climbed above 20 percent and Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome also gained ground. The numbers may not have the folks in Redmond tossing fitfully in their beds yet, but they can’t be happy.
