Occasionally I look at the Google Analytics statistics from our website,
Louisville.com, to see what kind of computers/operating systems people are
using when visiting the site. We have enough traffic, both locally and
nationwide, to give what I believe is a relatively representative trend line of
the popularity of various OS's in the U.S. over the same time period.
Here are our statistics, in percentages, for the full month of December from
2007-2011:
TOTAL VISITS 30,206 43,361 41,874 68,744 114,716
DEC 07 DEC 08 DEC 09 DEC 10 DEC 11
Windows 94% 90% 84% 78% 65%
Macintosh 5% 9% 12% 14% 14%
iOS 0% 1% 3% 6% 14%
Android 0% 0% 0% 2% 7%
Linux 0% 1% 0% 0% 0%
Other 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
The most obvious trend is the continuing and rapid decline in usage of the
Windows operating system, which has dropped 29% over five years. Apple's OS
usage (MacOS and iOS), meanwhile, has increased from 5% in 2007 to a combined
28% in 2011.
I well remember several web developers in the mid-2000s telling me, after I
complained that their web software did not adequately support Macintosh
browsers, that they didn't see the point in putting much effort into Mac
compatibility, since the Mac at that time represented less than 5% of Internet
users. Oddly enough, I haven't heard that particular excuse in the last couple
of years.
Anybody care to hazard a guess as to when Windows will represent less than half
of Internet users? The trend line shows an accelerating rate of decline in
Windows usage year to year — 4%, 6%, 6%, 13% — with a huge drop between 2010
and 2011. It is entirely possible that Windows will be used by fewer than half
of our web site's visitors by December 2012.
Happy New Year to all…
Dan Crutcher
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