We have just taken the first steps in 2017, making it a perfect time to take a look at how the most popular operating system and browser rankings on the market continue to evolve, what the trend of each is and what we can expect during The first months of 2017.
As references we are going to use the two most important pages of the network, which in solar give different results by having slightly different methodologies, allow us to have two ways to see this evolution. In short we can say that Chrome and Windows 7 remain firm in their leadership, worse than Firefox and Windows 10 keep alive their aspirations to approach them.
In short, when you see the differences of the graphics you have to think that both pages do not measure exactly the same. The StatCounter method can be more reliable when registering the actual use of the browsers, but the data of NetMarketShare also have to be taken into account, since they show us the browsers most used by the population.
Firefox secures second place in browsers
In May of 2016 Firefox surpassed for the first time to Internet Explorer like second more used navigator of the world, at least according to the data of a StatCounter that always is more positive in the competition of Microsoft. Since then, this accountant has shown how the Mozilla browser has been moving away and keeping distances from Microsoft.
As it happened when Chrome became the most used browser, NetMarketShare still does not show this reality, although there is a trend that inevitably leads to it. According to this page Firefox continues to grow as Internet Explorer continues its free fall, which if not changed will lead to both exchanging positions in the coming months.
Meanwhile, at the top of the table of Chrome browsers still dominates with iron fist and without giving symptoms that his throne will change hands in the coming years. It is true that in StatCounter you can see a slight drop of around 0.50% in the last month, but is that with the quotas of use that has the difficult would be to continue to grow. Although on NetMarketShare that is precisely what we see, it keeps growing and moving away from others.
In addition to the changes in these three browsers, we are also seeing how Microsoft Edge, weighted by the handicap that involves being linked to a single operating system in both desktop and mobile, has barely been able to move from 2% with which started the 2016 to 5.33% with which it has finished in NetMarketShare. StatCounter statistics are even worse, and you have to settle for ending the year at 3.37% of the computers you measure.
That has been enough to overcome Safari, which ended the current year at 3.47% NetMarketShare and 5.1% according to StatCounter. The “Other” section in which the rest of alternative browsers is measured by 1.7% and 4.06% respectively.
The conclusion therefore to how the browser market has started in 2017 is that Chrome has all of them to continue dominating the market during this year. Meanwhile, the second place in Firefox seems to continue to strengthen as the months go by, so Microsoft will have to rethink its strategy if it does not want its browsers to continue losing users during the year.
Windows 7 continues to lead operating systems
As for operating systems, we have to say that the leadership of Windows is still incontestable , being present in any of its versions in 91.72% according to NetMarketShare. Meanwhile, GNU / Linux and macOS have lost 0.10% and 0.67% respectively. GNU / Linux is still at 2.71%, despite the fact that macOS still stands at 6.07%.
In StatCounter, on the other hand, in desktop operating systems, we see that the Other category in which we assume that it enters the linux systems is at 3.62%, remaining stable although without great aspirations. Meanwhile, macOS has managed to reach and maintain 11%, so it is also stable.
As for movements within the Windows family, Windows 10 continues to grow to 24.36% and 27.15% according to NetMarketShare and Statcounter respectively. This growth, however, has not been enough to reach a Windows 7 that maintains its leadership with 48.34% usage quotas and 40.23% according to these two statistics.
On the other hand, Windows 8.1 continues to drop to stand at 6.9% and 8.43%. Meanwhile, Windows XP continues to manage to survive and has slightly increased its share of use. Currently it is at 9.07% and 5% according to these two pages of statistics, showing that despite having stopped their support there are still users who continue to trust him.
So, the summary here would be that the Windows domain is still far from being threatened by statistics. Still, the dominant is still a Windows 7 that has not only stopped falling, but has managed to slightly increase its share of use in the last month. Even so, the logical thing would be that during the next months Windows 10 will continue to grow and approach.
And so are the things in a year that promises to be exciting for the desktop. A year that we could end the arrival of an Andromeda OS that tries to take to the desktop the absolute dominion of Android in the mobile sector. It seems difficult that this will be enough to dethrone the one that has been the most used system for decades, but we will keep alert during the next months in case the trends change.
