Market Analysis
The following information is about Personal Computers and Desktop Usage. See also Mobile (unfinished).
Market Size for Personal Computers (PCs)
Worldwide PC-in-Use and Internet Users, calculated by the Computer Industry Almanac, Inc.. Brackets indicate estimates.
Year |
PC's in-use (Mil) |
Internet users (Mil) |
Sources |
2005 |
900 |
1,081 |
|
2006 |
996 |
1,216 |
|
2007 |
(1,088) |
(1,367) |
|
2008 |
1,190 |
(1,537) |
Linux Market Share Estimates
Since Linux can be copied and installed by everyone, reliable statistics are hard to get. (see Wikipedia: Linux Adoption).
The following overview is Wikipedia's list of usage share estimates, based on browser statistics.
Date |
Microsoft Windows |
Mac OS |
Linux |
Sources |
April 2009 |
87.90% |
9.73% |
1.02% |
|
April 2009 |
88.71% |
5.31% |
2.16% |
|
February 2009 |
93.82% |
4.59% |
1.24% |
|
December 2008 |
93.72% |
3.66% |
0.47% |
|
Median |
91.22% |
4.95% |
1.13% |
|
GNOME Popularity Estimates
There's no reliable way to measure GNOME's market share among Linux desktops in use. The only source of information is web-based polls.
Month/Year |
KDE |
GNOME |
XFce |
Others |
n |
Source |
06/09 |
30.00% |
53.00% |
n.a. |
17.00% |
n.a. |
|
08/08 |
43.57% |
40.39% |
11.23% |
4.80% |
1166 |
|
05/08 |
42.50% |
45.70% |
n.a. |
11.80% |
5900 |
|
08/07 |
34.80% |
44.80% |
7.90% |
12.50% |
38500 |
|
02/07 |
56.58% |
30.56% |
11.71% |
1.15% |
2006 |
|
08/06 |
37.70% |
35.10% |
9.80% |
17.40% |
14535 |
|
02/06 |
64.86% |
25.78% |
8.80% |
0.57% |
1932 |
|
04/05 |
57.92% |
29.10% |
3.98% |
9.01% |
8616 |
|
01/05 |
58.25% |
30.92% |
9.70% |
1.13% |
1588 |
|
01/05 |
61.78% |
21.32% |
5.16% |
11.74% |
3799 |
|
02/04 |
43.67% |
26.60% |
2.82% |
26.41% |
5887 |
|
11/03 |
55.93% |
31.67% |
10.79% |
1.61% |
1121 |
Other information
Current Situation
Assume one PC-in-Use equals one desktop installation. Then, we may distiguish between an worst case scenario and a moderate scenario.
Scenario A:
Let's assume the lower numbers about Linux' market share and GNOME's popularity are correct. This is someting like a worst case scenario. Then our position is now:
0.01 x 0.35 = 0.0035
or 0,35 percent global market share, with
0.0035 x 1.18 Billon = 4,130,000
GNOME desktops installed worldwide.
Scenario B:
Let's assume the upper numbers about Linux' market share and GNOME's popularity are correct. This is a moderate scenario. Then, our position is now:
0.02 x 0.45 = 0.009
or 0.9 percent global market share, with
0.009 x 1.18 Billon = 10,620,000
GNOME desktops installed worldwide.
