Google’s Android Overtakes Windows as the World’s Number 1 Operating System

Android is officially the world’s most popular operating system in terms of Internet usage, according to new data provided by StatCounter, as it managed to overtake Microsoft’s Windows.

Figures concerning desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile usage combined show that Android is now powering no less than 37.93 percent of the devices connected to the Internet, while Windows fell to the second place with 37.91 percent.

Without a doubt, the huge growth experienced by Android in the last few years, which helped it secure a market share of more than 80 percent in the mobile industry, contributed to Google gaining the leading spot over Windows, and StatCounter describes this switch of places as “the end of an era.”

“This is a milestone in technology history and the end of an era,” Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter CEO, said today. “It marks the end of Microsoft’s leadership worldwide of the OS market which it has held since the 1980s. It also represents a major breakthrough for Android which held just 2.4% of global internet usage share only five years ago.”

Microsoft’s biggest problem is that its mobile platform barely exists, with Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile currently powering around 1 percent of the smartphones out there - some research firms put it at 1.3 percent, while others claim the platform is doing worse, with a share of around 0.5 percent.

Despite the fact that it’s leading on the desktop, with Windows holding a share of around 84 percent, Microsoft loses ground due to the mobile platform that is constantly declining every month.

With sales of smartphones skyrocketing in the last few years and PC shipments going down every quarter, it was just a matter of time until Android managed to overtake Windows, and it’s probably a change that Microsoft itself expected to happen.

Redmond, however, isn’t very interested in investing in mobile, and although its mobile platform is collapsing, there’s little chance for Windows 10 Mobile to return to growth anytime soon.