Microsoft tightens OS market stranglehold

Software monolith stretches lead at the top, but open source rivals make waves in the server arena

Microsoft cashed in on the popularity of Windows 7 and a reinvigorated PC refresh cycle to stretch its lead at the top of the operating systems (OS) market in 2010.

But its success in the client space was not matched by its server OS sales growth, allowing open source rivals to gain ground.

Figures from Gartner reveal global OS revenue last year rose 7.8 per cent to $30.4bn (£18.4bn). Client OS sales were up 9.3 per cent year on year, while server OS market growth was clocked at a more modest 5.7 per cent.

In the client market, Mac OS was the fastest-growing area, albeit from a relatively small base. Meanwhile, in the server space, the Linux segment provided the swiftest growth rate as end users embraced open-standards systems.

Microsoft remains the 800lb gorilla in the OS jungle, snaffling 78.6 per cent of the overall market last year, up from 77.9 per cent in 2009. The software giant posted client OS revenue growth of 9.2 per cent, while server OS sales spiked 7.5 per cent.

IBM, in second place with a 7.5 per cent slice of the market, and HP, third with 3.7 per cent, both saw market share decline by a fifth of a point during 2010. The hardware giants posted sales growth of 5.6 and 1.4 per cent, respectively.

Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems catapulted it into fourth spot, with a market share of 2.6 per cent. Fifth-placed Red Hat was the top five's fastest grower, with revenue rising 18 per cent to $517m, and market share up a fifth of a point to two per cent. Apple placed sixth, with sales up 15.8 per cent to $449m, giving the Mac maker a 1.7 per cent share of the market.

Gartner principal research analyst Matthew Cheung said: "The long-pending demand for PC refreshment was unleashed as the economy stepped out from the economic turndown, which drove growth of client OSs."