November 18th, 2009

Netbook/notebook reliability study shows that technology breaks ...

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 3:30 pm

Categories: Trends

Tags: Accident, Laptop Computer, Netbook, Hardware Malfunction, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Policies And Procedures, Notebooks, Hardware, Human Resources, Notebooks & Tablets

Interesting research by SquareTrade which looked at the failure rate of 30,000 notebooks and netbooks covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans.

Highlights from the study:

• Looking at the first 3 years of ownership, 31% of laptop owners reported a failure to SquareTrade. Two-thirds of this failure (20.4%) came from hardware malfunctions, and one-third (10.6%) was reported as accidental damage.  
• Netbooks are projected to have a 20% higher failure rate from hardware malfunctions than more expensive laptop computers.
• ASUS and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16% having a hardware malfunction over 3 years.

Read the rest of this entry »

November 13th, 2009

Friday Challenge: What's your take on OS/browser market share trends?

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 6:15 am

Categories: Trends

Tags: Operating System, Market Share, Web Site, Web Browser, Web Site Development, Web Browsers, Web Technology, Operating Systems, Internet, Software

I talk a lot about trends here, and it’s always a bone of contention because it seems that everyone has their own take on which trends to keep an eye on which to ignore, what they mean and what they don’t.

Here’s my take on trends. The data that I look at most often is Net Applications. This company draws browser and OS data based on 160 million visitors per month visiting client websites, which means that the data is drawn from a variety of websites. I think that this is more representative than data drawn from a single website, or a group of websites on a similar subject.

Rather than focusing on the specific numbers, I like to look at overall trends rather than individual percentages. A 0.3% increase or decrease in market share Read the rest of this entry »

November 6th, 2009

February 2013 - The date when Firefox could pass Internet Explorer

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 10:27 am

Categories: Thoughts, Trends

Tags: Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Web Browsers, Internet, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Mark this date in your diaries and on your calendars: February 2013. It’s my best guess date based on the data I have for when Firefox’s global market share will surpass that of Internet Explorer.

The other day I was asked an interesting question - when will Firefox’s market share pass that of Internet Explorer. Initially I shrugged off the question and answered it with a dismissive “dunno.” The question did, however, set me thinking.

Earlier today I took a trip over the the Net Applications site for a totally unrelated job, and pulled up the chart showing market share for the different browsers for the past two years. Then something struck me - the market share growth of Firefox and the decline of IE is almost linear.

Note: The data that I look at most often is Net Applications. This company draws browser and OS data based on 160 million visitors per month visiting client websites, whic means that the data is drawn from a variety of websites. I think that this is more representative than data drawn from a single website, or a group of websites on a similar subject.

Interesting.

I downloaded the data and plugged it all into Excel so I could take a closer look. I added a trendline Read the rest of this entry »

October 26th, 2009

Windows 7 hourly tracking

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 10:14 am

Categories: Trends

Tags:

Net Applications has a Windows 7 hourly tracker. We’re a few days into the launch,m so how’s Microsoft’s new OS doing?

Here’s a chart of the data:

Some highlights:

• At noon EDT on 22 Oct (launch day), Win 7 market share stood at 1.40%
• Current peak is 2.90%, hit at 25 Oct 4:00 EDT
• Daily peak usage occur at roughly 4:00 EDT

It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on the trend over the next few days.

[UPDATE: This data is based on live market share as measured by Net Applications. The company measures OS and browser usage by tracking the computers that visit the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients, which results in a data pool of about 160 million unique visitors per month. So the market share fluctuates based on web usage.]

October 20th, 2009

How long until Windows 7 market share beats Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard?

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 8:12 am

Categories: Apple, Microsoft, Poll of the Day, Trends, Windows 7

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Microsoft Windows 7, Apple Mac OS X, Apple Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

OK, time for a bit of fun. Windows 7 hits the General Availability make on October 22nd. How long until Windows 7 market share beats Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard?

Here’s the data as it stood for September 09 as per Net Applications:

• Windows 7: 1.52%
• Mac OS X 10.5 3.03%
• Mac OS X 10.4 0.96%
• Mac OS X 10.6 0.77%
• Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 combined 4.76%

How long until Windows 7 market share beats Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard?

Note: Windows 7 has already beaten Linux’s market share of 0.96%.

 Loading ...

Note: I’m pretty sure that Net Applications will be tracking market share hourly following launch.

Want to make a more precise guess? Pop it in the TalkBack!

[UPDATE: Via Twitter, PC Pro's Jon Honeyball suggested that a good metric would be to see how long it takes Windows 7 to grab the same percentage of the Windows install base that Snow Leopard has captured of the entire Mac OS X intall base - Interesting!]

October 2nd, 2009

Vista/IE market share slide, Win 7/Firefox/Chrome surge

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 5:19 am

Categories: Trends

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Market Share, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Windows 7, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Internet, Software

According to data supplied by web metrics firm Net Applications, both Vista and Internet Explorer lost market share during September, while Windows 7, Firefox and Chrome all saw a surge in market share.

Vista saw its market share slide by 0.18%, which might not itself seem significant, but it’s the first time the OS has lost share since January 2008. Its market share is now at 18.6%.

Internet Explorer’s market share also took a battering, dropping by a massive 1.26%, taking its market share to a new low of 65.7%. This is a huge hit for Microsoft.

As for gains, Windows 7 is on the up, with a 1.52% market share, up 0.34%. This means that already, nearly one in every 66 computers browsing the web is running Windows 7. For an operating system that’s not yet out for general release yet, that’s pretty impressive.

Firefox has also seen a surge in its market share, up 0.77% to 23.75%. Same for Chrome, climbing 0.33% to 4.24%.

Interesting trends, be even more interesting to see if they continue.

Net Applications measures OS and browser usage by tracking the computers that visit the 40,000 sites it monitors for clients, which results in a data pool of about 160 million unique visitors per month.

May 25th, 2009

Is "market share" thinking "old school" thinking?

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 4:11 am

Categories: Ad industry, Trends

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Market Share, Tech Industry, Trends, Linux, Desktops, Apple Mac OS, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware

The tech industry spends a lot of time talking about market share. Whether it’s hardware (iPod, iPhone, Macs …) or software (Windows, Linux, Mac OS, browsers …), we seems to want to read a lot into this particular metric. But is “market share” thinking “old school” thinking?

I think that the mistake that many fall into it to look at market share and equate this to importance, the idea being that ultimately there’s “one XYZ to rule them all” (XYZ can be an OS, a computer, a cell phone or whatever). This is old school thinking, because over time all markets fragment. Look at markets such as cars, home appliances and consumer electronics and watch how over time these changed over time and how an increase in the number of companies competing for users cash, along with changing user tastes, has meant eroded the idea of one single product dominating a particular market. Even a killer product such as the iPod is vastly outnumbered by cheap junk music players. The big difference here is that Apple has a massive PR and ad budget to tell us how important the product is, while the companies making the cheap junk players don’t.

Market share for software is even more dubious. What does it mean, for example, when Mac OS X gains an extra market share percentage point? Read the rest of this entry »

May 19th, 2009

Time's 10 biggest tech failures of the decade

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 1:29 pm

Categories: Thoughts, Trends

Tags: List, Tech Failure, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Time Magazine has published a list of what it considers to be the 10 biggest tech failures of the decade.

Here’s the list:

• Microsoft Vista
• Gateway
• HD DVD
• Vonage
• YouTube
• Sirius XM
• Microsoft Zune
• Palm
• Iridium
• Segway

Microsoft hits the list twice - for both Windows Vista and the Zune. Personally, I think that both have earned their spots on the list. That said, I think that the list is a pretty comprehensive tour of the biggest tech failures of the decade.

 Loading ...

Were you bitten by any of these “failures”?

May 1st, 2009

Linux clients break 1% web usage share

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 5:52 am

Categories: Trends

Tags: Apple iPhone, Linux, UNIX, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

According to NetApplications, Linux usage share on client devices has, for the first time, passed the 1% mark.

Here’s how the web usage share breaks down for April 2009:

• Windows: 87.90%
• Mac: 9.73%
• Linux: 1.02%
• iPhone: 0.55%
• iPod touch: 0.15%

Over a period of 12 months, this is how the market share for the top five OSes has changed:

• Windows: -3.68%
• Mac: +2.35%
• Linux: +0.39%
• iPhone: +0.40%
• iPod touch: +0.12%

Even if you disagree with the numbers, there’s no doubt that Linux is on the up and growing at a rate similar to that of the iPhone.

How significant is this 1%? Very? Not much? Not at all?

March 3rd, 2009

Highlights from NetApplications data for February '09

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 7:06 am

Categories: Trends

Tags: Data, Web Browsers, Web Technology, Web Site Development, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, E-business/E-Commerce, Internet, Operating Systems, Software

NetApplications data for February ‘09 is out so it’s time to take a look at the trends.

Note: I know that many of you distrust NetApplications data, but remember that we are only using the data to examine trends.

• Windows market share up slightly to 88.41% (up from 88.20% last month and down from 91.52% a year ago).
• Vista market share stands at 22.91% (up from 22.48% a month ago and up from 12.92%).
• iPhone market share stays put at 0.48% (up from 0.14% a year ago).
• IE down slightly to 67.44% (from 67.55% last month and down from 74.88% a year ago). Losses here still caused by IE6 users moving to different browsers.
• Firefox up slightly to 21.77% (from 21.53% last month and 17.27% a year ago).
• Safari down to 8.02% (from 8.29% a month ago, but up from 5.70% a year ago) - NetApplications say that the reason for this is less home browsing in Feb compared to Dec and Jan.
• Chrome up to 1.15% (from 1.12% last month).
• Opera up to 0.71% (up from 0.71% last month, and 0.69% a year ago).

Nothing very interesting this month.

Note: NetApplication’s Global Market Share Statistics are based on aggregate data from a variety of ecommerce, corporate, and content provider websites from dozens of countries in regions which include North America, South America, Western Europe, Australia, the Pacific Rim, and Parts of Asia. Data is based on approximately 160 million unique monthly visitors.