More people are using Series 40 than Windows Phone

DECEMBER brings with it some big (and much needed) changes at Netmarketshare and thus our report.

We've been dithering for a while about the continuing validity of the data being provided, as it didn't really reflect the changing relationships we have with different device types, and the crossover between desktop, laptop, tablet, 2-in-1, or the emergence of new form factors like IoT sensors.

Only this week, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 had crossed the 600,000 device threshold. Note though, that's devices - not desktops. It includes everything from Maker Boards to Xboxes. It's also far short of the 2 billion the company boastfully aimed for within two years of launch, which has now passed.

So forget everything you thought you knew - this is the real state of operating systems around the world. Net Applications (the company behind Netmarketshare) has also pointed out that it has removed a lot of data created by bots from its searches as well, so this should all be almost all real users.

Starting with an overview.

The most popular operating system in the world right now is Windows (42.77 per cent). No huge shakes there. Second is Android (34.06), then iOS (17.13) and Mac (4.38). Linux is fifth (1.09).

Chrome OS comes in sixth (0.14). Then here's where it gets sad, funny and predictable. Series 40, as used on pre-Microsoft Nokia phones, registers 0.11. That's more than Windows Phone (0.09).

Other operating systems that register over 0.01 per cent of the market are RIM (0.05), BSD (0.02), Symbian (older version) (0.01), PlayStation (0.01), Bada (0.01).

Registering too low to flicker: Xbox (old OS), Wii, webOS, Nintendo DS, Windows Mobile (old version) and WebTV.

As you can see, we've now got a much more 360 picture of the market. Let's break that down even more. The top operating systems by version make for very interesting reading.

Windows 7, which we've been recording as holding nearly half the desktop market, when put in this new environment, only scores 20.87 per cent. Windows 10 is second with 15.46.

Third is Android 7.0 Nougat (9.6), then Android 6.0 Marshmallow (9.55).

Fifth place is the first entry from Apple - iOS 11.1 at 5.68. iOS 11.0 is just behind at 5.28.

The first macOS entry is down in 13th place - 10.12 has 1.87 percent of the market.

Linux is down in 18th - 0.81 across all its distros aside from Ubuntu which gets a separate listing in 25th place with 0.25.

Chrome OS is said to be doing well, but in context, it's only holding 0.14 of the market putting it in 32nd place, just behind Android 8.0 Oreo at 0.16 in 31st. And the highest scoring Windows Phone is 8.0 (not even 8.1!) in 56th position.

We're still taking in the sheer quantity of data that we suddenly have to play around with. So we'll leave you to draw your own conclusions for now, but hope you'll agree that this is going to give us a much more interesting set of figures to analyse going forwards. µ

Source: More people are using Series 40 than Windows Phone