Google's Android OS a big deal, being used on millions of smartphones and tablets the world over. But by 2016 it'll be even bigger than Microsoft's world-dominating Windows platform, according to new research from Gartner.
At the close of 2016, says the report, there will be 2.3 billion computers, tablets and smartphones using Android software, compared with 2.28 billion Windows devices.
Launched in 2008, Google's Android software has grown exponentially during the last several years. It's now the world's number one mobile operating system and analysts expect it to soon overtake Apple's iOS in the tablet space too.
Microsoft's Windows software is said to power upwards of 90 per cent of the world's PCs, the company has dominated this space for decades, despite the rapid growth of Apple's rival OS X software and accompanying hardware in the form of iMac and MacBook PCs.
Microsoft's failure to adapt with the times will result in the company losing market share consistently during the next four years, according to Gartner, with Android surpassing it by the close of 2016.
Worldwide shipments of personal computers fell by over 8 per cent in the third quarter, the steepest decline since 2001, reports Reuters, as more consumers flock to increasingly powerful tablets and smartphones for more basic computing.
Microsoft's Windows Phone platform currently owns about 3 per cent of the smartphone space and the company's newly released Windows RT platform is expected to control around 5 per cent of the tablet space by the close of 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment