With the passing of the old year into the new, I thought it might be timely to take a look at how the market share statistics finished up at the end of 2014. As usual, the preferred source for market share trends is NetMarketShare.
Desktop Operating System Trends – 2014
Points of interest:
- How strong Windows 7’s market share is as at the end of December 2014 – almost 10% more than at the start of the year.
- Windows XP, although dropping more than 10% during the year, still well and truly outnumbers Windows 8 and 8.1 combined.
- Windows 8/8.1’s continuing dismal performance in the market place. Although, that’s no real surprise following the announcement of Windows 10’s impending release, plus the news that it will be a free upgrade.
Desktop Browser Trends – 2014
Points of interest:
- Internet Explorer’s slow but steadily improved numbers throughout the year.
- Ditto for Chrome
- Firefox’s continuing slump, now below 12% market share with no sign of a reversal.
I decided to investigate a couple of additional areas this time round, with some interesting results:
Browsing by Device Trends – 2014
This one really surprised me. According to these figures, and despite all the doom and gloom to the contrary, desktop computers are still ruling the internet roost at the end of 2014. Sure, the percentage of connecting desktops has dropped slightly during the year but it still remains very healthy and well above the numbers for mobile devices.
Desktop Search Engine Trends – 2014
No surprise to see Google still dominating here but it’s interesting to note Bing’s steady improvement throughout the year, almost doubling its starting percentage. What saddens me is that none of the more private options, such as Duck Duck Go and Startpage, have impacted enough to even rate a mention, tucked away under the rather inglorious heading of “Others”.
Now on with 2015 and more interesting trends in store no doubt.
Very interesting stats, and hopefully taken with a grain of salt, Mindblower!
This is no surprise, I just wonder how many PC’s are in a dual boot with W7 and another OS. I have a nephew that works in the IT department with a company that installs security software and W7 is all they will use.
I’d be a little dubious of those stats Jim mate, wasn’t too long ago Chrome was romping ahead of IE and a quick check on Wikipedia shows that Chrome would still appear to still be the preferred browser – all be it the sources could be entirely different and give entirely different results but stats being stats and all that. Some interesting figures all the same 🙂
I’d be a lot more “dubious” of the stats from alternative sources Mark.
StatCounter has always had Chrome ahead of Internet Explorer, something which I personally find totally implausible.
As MB said, all stats should be taken with a grain of salt. However, NetMarketShare is generally regarded as the most accurate because their methodology only includes unique visits whereas others, including StatCounter, count everything. If unique visits aren’t the sole source, you’ll always get a skewed result. For example; a single Chrome user who visits a monitored site 100 times within the given period will be counted as 100 users. Which also leaves the whole system open to manipulation.
Of course, Google would never dream of manipulating the system, would they. 🙂
Another variable which also comes into play concerns the type of users who visit the sites monitored by these services – if they tend to be of the more savvy variety, browsers such as Chrome and Firefox are bound to figure more prominently. This would then also tend to eliminate the vast majority of users, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Average, from the equation.
While I don’t doubt that Chrome may be popular among the more savvy users, common sense dictates that the built-in Internet Explorer would have to be the most commonly used browser overall. That’s certainly been my experience anyway.
Suggested reading: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/faq.aspx#Methodology
You are right of course mate, stats have always been contentious and everyone has their own interpretation of what stats mean but I can’t help wondering how we went from 2014 when Chrome was the biggest thing since sliced bread as far as many publications and reports were concerned to a point where marketshare now professes that IE is more than double in popularity to Chrome and Chrome itself has less than a quarter of the browser market share?!.
Because, in my opinion, those reports were wrong in the first place, based on erroneous statistics, most likely emanating from StatCounter.
NetMarketShare (or Net Applications) has always shown Internet Explorer way ahead of Chrome, from as far back as I can recall. And there has always been a large discrepancy between NetMarketShare’s stats and those of StatCounter.
I did my homework on this long ago, checking out the various methodologies involved and, as I explained in my earlier reply, NetMarketShare’s is the only one that’s fair and unpolluted.
If some tech sites choose to go with StatCounter’s statistics, perhaps that’s because they are more interested in seeking a headline rather than the facts. 🙂
Certainly food for thought, and I’ve delved a little into the backgrounds of a number of stat counters since you posted this mate and it’s really quite hair curling how the stats can, and do, differ and the reasons why. We could have the makings of a future article to blow this open and discuss this in greater detail mate 🙂
At best, you might be able prove some tweaking and adjustment(s) around the edges of these numbers, but overall they would confirm within any reasonable margin of error.
Get off your high-horse and ACCEPT THEM MARK.
Please note also that the cratering of Firefox corresponds exactly with the termination of the Founder and CEO for their internal outcry for him supporting Traditional Marriage.
Observing this free fall as a consequence and remaining hopeful for their ultimate demise will continue to peak my interest as the Left, who claim to be champions of free speech, free thought, etc., take it in the rear once again…
“Off my high horse”? … “take it in the rear once again”? Are you honestly trying to justify free speech and free thought with insults because you don’t agree with me?.
That’s not quite the democracy I was brought up with, that’s you trying to shove your opinion down my throat, whereas all I did was question the stats provided in a sensible, and respectful manner. I’m sure Jim saw it as such as that’s exactly the way it was intended, but if people are incapable of absorbing and accepting others views in a respectful and democratic way then maybe it’s time to get off the internet and back into the playground with all the other boys and girls?.