SAN FRANCISCO, July 25 — Android now runs on more devices connecting to the World Wide Web than any other operating system, claiming 34.9 percent of global usage as of December 2025. That is the headline from the latest web-traffic estimates, which put Microsoft Windows at 29.98 percent, Apple iOS at 16.81 percent, macOS at 2.03 percent, and everything else lumped together at 9.06 percent.
These numbers are not precise — reliable primary sources are limited, and there is no agreed-upon data-collection methodology — but they capture the broad shift that has been underway for years: the centre of gravity in personal computing has moved from the desktop to the pocket. On smartphones and tablets, Android commands 72 percent of traffic versus iOS’s 28 percent.
On tablets specifically, Apple’s iPad — running an iOS variant — still leads with 51.23 percent, against Android’s 48.61 percent. The practical upshot is that any service built for the mobile web has to treat Android as the default platform, even as Apple retains a strong and wealthy user base. The desktop picture is more familiar.
As of June 2026, Windows holds 62.16 percent of traffic from desktop and laptop computers. “Unknown operating systems” account for 18.75 percent — a reminder that many devices do not identify themselves cleanly.
Apple’s Mac OS comes in at 14.58 percent, desktop Linux at 3.09 percent, and ChromeOS at 1.42 percent. Here’s what it means in plain terms: while Windows remains the dominant personal computer OS, its share is being squeezed at the margins by Macs, Chromebooks, and the ever-present unknown category that often represents older or less-common systems.
The invisible workhorses: Servers and supercomputers
Step away from consumer gadgets, and Linux dominates. On server operating systems, Linux holds 63.1 percent share, followed by Windows, Unix, and others. The dominance is even starker at the high end: all of the top 500 most powerful supercomputers have used Linux since November 2017.
That is a clean sweep — no Windows, no macOS, no exotic Unix variants. For anyone running a cloud service, a website, or a scientific simulation, Linux is the default engine.
Embedded systems — the chips inside routers, cars, smart TVs, and even Intel’s microprocessors — are the most numerous devices of all, but they often lack an operating system or a web browser, making their share extremely difficult to measure. For example, Intel microprocessors contain an embedded management processor that runs Minix, a small Unix-like OS. Those devices do not register in web-traffic logs, so the numbers we have for desktop and mobile represent only a slice of the total computing universe.
The bigger trend: From desktop to mobile
The shifting balance was already clear a decade ago. According to Gartner data from 2012 through 2016, worldwide device shipments — to stores, not necessarily to consumers — included smartphones, tablets, laptops, and PCs. Smartphones outsold PCs by both unit and dollar value, and the gap was projected to widen to more than double.
In January 2016, tech analyst Paul Thurrott noted that Apple’s active installed base had reached one billion devices, compared with Microsoft’s 200 million Windows 10 users and its broader Windows base of 1.5 billion users — a figure that had not changed in years. Google’s Android base stood at over 1.4 billion as of September 2015.
The observation was that of the three major personal computing platforms, only one — Windows — was declining. Apple stopped reporting unit sales in 2018, switching to revenue per model. Analysts now extrapolate sales using wholesale prices.
Other hardware manufacturers typically do not report unit sales either, so the installed-base figures we have are often estimates. The practical upshot is that the old PC-centric way of measuring “what people use” is giving way to a mobile-first reality, with Linux running the servers and supercomputers that make it all work.
The next thing to watch is whether Android’s lead on phones can translate into something similar on other form factors — or whether Apple’s higher revenue per device will continue to shape the premium market.
Sources
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