Analysis of Operating Systems and Browsers: A Usage Metrics

Purpose:The purpose of this paper is to examine the growth of FOSS and proprietary operating systems and browsing software used in computers and various types of mobile phone devices around the world. Design/Methodology/Approach:The data is gathered from StatCounter (http://gs.statcounter.com) - one of the biggest web analytics service. The collected data is analysed keeping objectives of the study in view. Findings:It offers a thorough insight of yearly and cumulative growth of software industry. As for as OS market is concerned Mac OS X and Linux have increased their share. Linux has increased from 0.69% in 2009 to 0.78% in 2010. Accordingly year wise growth of mobile operating systems show iOS is losing its market share by dipping to 25.48% in 2010 from 34.01% in 2009, while as BlackBerry and Android have increased their share by 8.34% and 6.41% respectively. Browser Internet Explorer (IE) is showing declining trend with 52.77% share in May, 2010 against 44.52% in April, 2011, whereas Firefox is maintaining a study trend during same period with 31.64% share in May, 2010 with slight depreciation (29.67%) in May, 2011. However, in mobile browser arena all the browsers are showing a declining trend in 2010 when compared to 2009 except Android, BlackBerry, Samsung and NetFront. BlackBerry has increased by 8.15% and Android- an open source mobile browser has increased its market share by 6.63% augurs well for FOSS movement. Originality/Value:The paper explore the market share of FOSS in OSS and browsers. It deciphers in detail the FOSS growth and increasing market share and can help stakeholders to take future course of action in this arena.