The world’s second-most popular desktop operating system isn’t macOS anymore

[OneMoreThing...]

Enlarge / Just a few of the Chromebooks we've reviewed and tested in recent years. (credit: Valentina Palladino)

For ages now, every annual report on desktop operating system market share has had the same top two contenders: Microsoft's Windows in a commanding lead at number one, and Apple's macOS in distant second place. But in 2020, Chrome OS became the second-most popular OS, and Apple fell to third.

That's according to numbers by market data firm IDC and a report on IDC's data by publication GeekWire. Chrome OS had passed macOS briefly in individual quarters before, but 2020 was the first full year when Apple's OS took third place.

Despite the fact that macOS landed in third, viewing this as an example of Google beating out Apple directly might not be accurate. Rather, it's likely that Chrome OS has been primarily pulling sales and market share away from Windows at the low end of the market. Mac market share actually grew from 6.7 percent in 2019 to 7.5 percent in 2020.

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[Slydude]

Of course the Chrome numbers are probably also helped by people looking for low end gear for virtual learning too.

 

[chscag]

I priced out chromebook PCs some time ago. A decent chromebook with enough memory, large hard drive or SSD, is not inexpensive. Amazon prices vary from el cheapo to around $800 to $1000, depending on what you want to use it for.

 

[Slydude]

I've noticed that. When most people talk about the price of those things they're comparing the cheap ones to Macs. Not a valid comparison by any stretch of the imagination.