The state of the OS and web browser market
UPDATE: Android surpasses Windows as the world’s most popular operating system for the first time. Windows’ decline continues.
Original article follows…
An update for you with some interesting stats for Internet-using computers of all shapes and sizes. You will see they are continuing to follow a long term trend. (TL;DR people are continuing to move from desktop PCs to devices, and Windows market share is dropping as a result.)
Firstly, it looks like Android may surpass Windows as the most popular OS for Internet users (globally) sometime in the next few months.
Of course, these figures are somewhat skewed by the bazillions of users in Asia, but the trend is also visible in other markets as people turn away from desktops and towards devices.
Europe remains strongest for Windows, overall, though its decline there is still pretty consistent.
North America reveals a, perhaps predictably, higher share of Apple devotees than other regions. iOS is the second-most popular OS.
Think about that for a moment.
In the US, 38% of users are now using an Apple-branded computer or device to access the Internet. 60% are now using an OS other than Windows.
A mere 5 years ago Windows had 75% of the market and such a decline would have seemed unthinkable. If the long-term trend continues, in 6 months it will be half that.
If you’re a desktop app developer, you might want to consider what is compelling about the desktop environment and make sure you play to its strengths. You might also consider getting some experience in developing for mobile.
Turning to the Web Browser market, we see the market share of IE is now below 5% globally. Millions of web developers cry “hurrah!”.
Perhaps surprisingly, globally, Edge does not even rate a mention yet, and is lagging behind even the perpetual bridesmaid Opera in popularity. Chrome continues to grow in popularity and market share.
Even in the US, traditionally a market that has strong IE support, IE is continuing the steady downward trend and now sit at 8.1%. Edge is growing but almost imperceptibly – certainly not as fast as IE is shedding market share – and now sits at 3.4%. By contrast, check out those Safari numbers!
In Europe, IE and Edge combined are at about 8% of the market, with Edge again barely growing share as IE continues to drop year on year.
What does it all mean?
Well, if you’re a web developer it’s all pretty good news, showing that the worst browsers ever invented™ continue their slide into obscurity. It also tells us that if we plan to target China and India, we probably need to start testing web apps in the UC browser on Android devices.
If you’re a desktop app developer, you might want to consider what is compelling about the desktop environment and make sure you play to its strengths. You might also consider getting some experience in developing for mobile.
A counter-balance to this info is that while we continue to service customers with corporate networks that are slow to embrace change we might take some comfort from that acting as a brake on those customers asking for something different.
Unfortunately, it also means we’ll keep getting the question “yes, but does it work in IE?”.
As my teenagers would say, “kill me now”.