As market share is the most important metric ever, it’s important to stay abreast of what position each operating system has at any given second.
OK, not really, but the Macalope was amused by two market-share data points that just came out about a pair of Apple’s competitors. First up, Windows.
XP still top OS, but Windows 7 hot on its trail
Wow. So, according to NetApplications, Windows XP is still the most widely used desktop operating system on the Internet. Despite his sarcastic claims to the contrary, the Macalope hadn’t really paid attention to these numbers of late, but that seems kind of astounding. Most people on the Internet are using an operating system that’s ten years old. People, we’re never going to have a last second of regret about all those Skynet jokes as a robot army crushes us under its heels if we don’t upgrade our infrastructure.
It’s true that Microsoft has a tough row to hoe in getting corporations to pony up for massive OS upgrade projects during a bad economy. But you see why some of us make the case that, when half of users are still on XP and no one is using the company’s mobile OS, the level of Microsoft’s relevancy is somewhat in question.
Also, by “hot on its trail” CNet’s Lance Whitney means “still almost ten percentage points behind.”
But, wait! Windows fan straw man has just arrived and has this to say: “Ah, but if you’ll notice, Snow Leopard still has a higher market share than Lion! Hypocrisy, I say! Hypocrisy!”
Windows fan straw man is very melodramatic.
Lion’s only been out for six months. And even those using Snow Leopard are at least on an operating system released after the second Battlestar Galactica went off the air. When XP was released, America was still having its love affair with Ally McBeal.
And look how that turned out.
Finally, let’s look at Android. One cannot doubt the relevance of Android, which is absolutely crushing iOS in market share. Android has relevance literally coming out of its butt! YES, LITERALLY.
Well, that is to say that the prior releases of Android do. The most current release is only on 0.6 percent of devices, so it’s hard to argue that Ice Cream Sandwich is really relevant for the vast majority of Android users.
Unless purely theoretical things are relevant.
[Editors’ Note: Each week the Macalope skewers the worst of the week’s coverage of Apple and other technology companies. In addition to being a mythical beast, the Macalope is not an employee of Macworld. As a result, the Macalope is always free to criticize any media organization. Even ours.]