News

IDC: Microsoft Continues to Dominate

• By Scott Bekker
• February 28, 2001

While the Justice Department has set out to stop Microsoft Corp.’s monopolistic practices on the OS market, it has its work cut out for it. A new report from industry analysts IDC says that not only has Microsoft’s stronghold on that market not weakened since the start of the antitrust trial, but the company has actually gained market share.

During 2000, Windows increased its hold on both the desktop and server, according to the report. Windows accounted for 41 percent of server operating environment (SOE) and a commanding 92 percent of shipments for the client operating environment (COE).

“The strong are getting stronger,” said Dan Kusnetzky, vice president of IDC’s Operating Environments research. “In what could have easily been a tough year for Microsoft because of its transition to Windows 2000, the company managed to increase its position in both the client and the server operating environments market.”

Not only did Microsoft increase its SOE shipments, it increased them at a rate significantly faster than the overall market. According to IDC, Microsoft’s SOE shipments jumped 20 percent in 2000, while the overall market’s growth was less than 13 percent. With 24 percent growth, Linux was the only other category of operating environment to increase its shipments faster than Microsoft – in fact, to increase at all.

On the desktop, the growth was slower but still overwhelmingly dominated by Microsoft. Only Windows and Linux increased their shipments. Windows 98/98 SE shipments rose by 36 percent over the previous year, while Windows 95 shipments fell off dramatically. Linux remained a minor player with 2 percent of desktop market share, but growth was up by 25 percent. Overall, Windows 9x and Me shipments were only up by 8 percent, but Microsoft increased its market share by almost 3 percent.

Linux, however, continues to garner backing from several major IT players, including IBM Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Dell Computer Corp., which are all shipping workstations with Linux already installed.

The report, Server Operating Environments: 2000 Year in Review, is available by contacting IDC. – Isaac Slepner