14 DAY TRIAL // They say that Windows is quickly losing ground, not only in the mobile industry, where things aren’t going very well for Microsoft, but also on the desktop, which is actually one of the industries that Redmond has been leading for many years.
Truth is, Microsoft has indeed lost some percentage points in the last couple of years, mostly because Linux and Mac OS X became a bit more appealing and easier to use, but Windows continues to be the number one platform in the desktop industry.
Living proof: Iraq. While in the United States, the United Kingdom, and other developed markets, Microsoft still sees some competition from Linux and Apple, not the same thing can be said about Asian markets where Windows is still powering most of the devices.
Although some might consider that Iraq is an irrelevant market for Microsoft, it’s actually a symbol of the fight against piracy and Windows domination despite strong competition coming from other companies also offering desktop solutions.
Windows on 97.73 of the Iraqi PCs
At this point, Iraq has a population of 36 million people, most of which are Muslims, and while Internet access isn’t yet available in every household, there are signs that things could improve in the next decade.
Getting back to Windows adoption figures, Microsoft’s operating systems, including here both old and new versions, are currently powering 97.73 percent of the computers in the country, which is pretty much living proof that no other desktop platform can compete with Windows for the time being.
How so? Everything is as easy as it could be: Windows 7 now has a market share of 81.08 percent, so 8 in 10 computers are running this particular OS version. Windows 8.1, the most recent Windows release coming out of Redmond, is second but very far away, with a market share of 6.59 percent, while Windows 8, the core modern OS flavor, is third with 5.54 percent.
Windows XP is also among the top operating systems, despite Iraqi’s appetite for modern operating systems: 4.52 percent of the local PCs are still running it.
Mac OS X is also powering 0.97 percent of the computers, most likely in organizations, while Linux has a market share of only 0.44 percent.
Piracy rate still insanely high
One of the reasons why Windows is holding such an impressive market share is also the number of pirated copies of the operating system that are currently in use in the country.
Iraq has always been one of the countries where piracy reached alarming rates and despite Microsoft’s efforts, legitimate Windows isn’t quite appealing to local users.
Older statistics provided to us by the Business Software Alliance indicated that 86 percent of the computers in Iraq were using pirated software, so it’s easy to see why Windows is installed on so many PCs.
Microsoft is well aware of this fact though and is making efforts to push local users and organizations to legitimate software, but until now, all these programs to promote the advantages of genuine solutions are just a waste of time and money.