Global Operating System mkt grew to $30.4 bn in 2010: Gartner

NEW DELHI: Global operating system (OS) revenue grew 7.8 per cent in 2010 to total $ 30.4 billion, in 2010 on back of recovering demand for IT products and services, research firm Gartner today said.

An operating system (OS) is software, consisting of programmes and data that runs on computers and manages various application softwares.

As the global economy recovered, worldwide OS revenue totalled $ 30.4 billion in 2010 from $ 28.14 billion in 2009, Gartner said in a statement.

Microsoft grew its market share to 78.6 per cent share in 2010 from 77.9 per cent in 2009, while IBM and HP were distant competitors with 7.5 per cent and 3.7 per cent share, respectively.

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

Oracle climbed up the ranking from No 8 in 2009 to No 4 in 2010 with its acquisistion of Sun Microsystems' Solaris business in April, 2009.

Apple, with its Mac OS, had a market share of 1.7 per cent in 2010. It raked in about $ 520 million in revenues in 2010, fuelled by the strong sales of Mac desktops and laptops.