Windows market share decreasing

Could drop below 90% by end of year

4 July 2008 11:05 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Microsoft's OS market share is on the wane, according to a new study releases by Net Applications.

A decreasing percentage of the internet population is using Windows as their operating system with Apple's Mac OS X seen as the main beneficiary from the drop in figures.

The data, collected from a base of "approximately 160 million visitors per month", shows that Apple's Mac OS X operating system market share in June came out at a record 7.94%, which is a 0.11 point increase over the previous month.

Linux stands at 0.80% market share, an improvement over the 0.68% recorded last month.

Windows machines dominate the market and came in at 90.89% - but down from 91.13% the previous month, following a two-year slow, but steady, decline.

If this pace continues, Windows users could drop below the 90% in the fourth quarter of this year.