Smartphones have become integral part of our life so much so that it was expected that it will soon throw a big challenge to desktop computers in terms of popularity and data usage. Given the fact that most of these smartphones run on Android this news was not a big surprise. Google’s Android has surpassed Microsoft’s windows to become the new most used operating system in the world.
According to a research by statistics firm StatCounter, Android accounted for 37.93% of the worldwide OS internet usage market while Windows came a close second clocking 37.91%. Even as the difference in the usage is minuscule, it’s big leap forward as Android has threatened the numero uno position of Microsoft operating system which it has enjoyed since decades.
The latest finding underscores people’s pereference of mobile phones over desktop computers for using internet
It’s no less than a milestone for Android OS as it only held 2.4% of the global internet usage share five years ago while Windows was the undisputed king of OS market since 80s, according to StatCounter CEO Aodhan Cullen. The research data was obtained for all internet access devices including mobile, tablet, laptop and desktop. However, if we take mobile internet usage out of equation, Windows is far ahead of its peers with 84% usage for March 2017. Windows is still a leader in North America and Europe, but in Asia Android is the main operating system for browsing the web.
The stats reveal: In North America Windows (all versions) was no.1 across all platforms with 39.5% share in March followed by iOS (25.7%) and Android (21.2%). It’s a similar story in Europe where Windows (51.7%) is over twice the level of Android (23.6%). However, in Asia, Android is on 52.2% compared to 29.2% for Windows.
He also attributed the development to three major factors the impact of Asia on the global market, growth of smartphones to access the internet and a decline in sales of traditional PCs.
