OS and browser market shares for January 2012

NetMarketShare’s desktop Operating System Market Share metrics for January 2012 show the Mac OS gaining a minuscule three tenths of a point on the month, with Windows falling back slightly. Linux made another proportionally significant gain, continuing its recent positive streak. December 2011 metrics are shown in parentheses for comparison.

Desktop:

• Windows – 92.05% (92.23%)
• Mac – 6.39% (6.36%)
• Linux – 1.56 (1.41%)

In the Mobile/Tablet category, iOS was still well out in first place, recovering some of the ground it gave up in December. JavaME slipped more than two points, most of which seems to have accrued to Android, now in a very close third place. Symbian lost about half a point, while RIM’s snake-bit Blackberry shed nearly a full point—significant when you are in the low single digits. Newcomer Kindle jumps into sixth place already, while Windows Mobile was up a hairsbreadth but fading fast, with Samsung still ahead but losing a fifth of the tiny share it had  in December.

Mobile/Tablet:

• iOS - 53.65% (52.10%)
• JavaME - 19.19% (21.27%)
• Android - 18.12% (16.29%)
• Symbian - 5.20% (5.76%)
• BlackBerry - 2.59% (3.51%)
• Kindle - 0.34%
• Windows Phone - 0.29% (0.27%)
• Samsung - 0.20% (0.25%)
• Windows Mobile – 0.12% (0.17%)

Desktop Operating System Versions

In terms of OS specific versions, Windows stays  in front by a wide margin, with ancient XP gaining agaon on the month, while Windows 7 slipped a bit although remaining solidly over 35 percent, and sad sack Windows Vista faling back a bit more. Apple’s OS 10.6 Snow Leopard at 29 months since its release in August, 2009 remains the most popular Mac OS version, but OS X 10.7 Lion is closing in and OS 10.5 Leopard is well back in third place in the Apple OS spectrum, but grew its share by remarkably little in November. OS X 10.4 Tiger held on to a O.24 share. As noted, Linux gained ground again, moving above a  1.5 percent share.

Windows:

• Windows XP - 47.19%  (46.52%)
• Windows 7 - 36.40%  (36.99%)
• Windows Vista - 8.22%  (8.44%)
• Windows 2000 - 0.13%  (0.14%)

Macintosh:

• MacOS X 10.6 - 2.95% (3.05%)
• Mac OS X 10.7 - 2.18% (2.02%)
• Mac OS X 10.5 - 0.97%  (1.00%)
• Mac OS X 10.4 - 0.24% (0.25)

Linux - 1.56% (1.41%)

Mobile/Tablet Operating System Versions

In the mobile/tablet category, Apple’s iOS remains on top, gaining more than a point of share—all iPhone. Jave ME slipped, and the recent Androids were all up in January.

iOS - 53.65% (52.10%)

• iPhone - 27.37%  (24.53%)
• iPad - 23.97%  (24.91%)
• iPod - 2.32%  (2.32%)

JavaME - 19.19%  (21.27%)

Android – 18.12% (16.29%)

• Android 2.3  10.31%  (8.92%)
• Android 2.2  4.35%  (4.10%)
• Android 2.1 1.16%  (1.20%)
• Android 3.2  0.77  (0.60%)
• Android 3.1 0.56% (0.50%)

Symbian - 5.20%  (5.76%)

BlackBerry - 2.59%  (3.51%)

Windows

• Windows Phone OS 7.5 - 0.21% (0.18%)
• Windows Phone OS 7 - 0.07% (0.09%)
• Windows CE - 0.09%  (0.14%)

For more information, visit netmarketshare.com.

Browser Share

In browsers, Safari’s usage share on the desktop slipped marginally again. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has a commanding lead in desktop Web browsers, and even gained nearly a point on the month. Second-place Firefox was down again, but interestingly, so was Google’s Chrome. Fifth-place Opera gained back a little ground over the month.

In the Mobile/Tablet browser category, Safari for iOS is still way out in front, increasng its overall share by more than a point in January. The many versions of Opera  Mini cumulatively remain in second place, but are sharply dropping, while Android in third-place is the big story for January, gaining more than two points of mobile browser share.

Desktop Browser Share:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer – 52.96%  (51.87%)
• Firefox - 20.88%   (21.83%)
• Chrome - 18.94%  (19.11% )
• Safari - 4.90%  (4.97%)
• Opera - 1.67% (1.66%)

Mobile/Tablet Browser Share:

• Safari - 54.85% (53.30%)
• Opera Mini - 19.58% (21.66%)
• Android Browser - 17.78%  (15.87%)
• Symbian - 2.83%  (3.33% )
• BlackBerry - 2.11%  (3.05%)
• Proprietary or Undetectable - 1.15%
• Opera Mobile - 0.38%  (0.41%)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer - 0.37%  (0.41%)

You can check it out at netmarketshare.com.