Android = The New Windows

Regular readers of this blog know that we have been arguing for a long time that MSFT Windows is close to death. Win 8 is the latest attempt from Redmond to take all of us back to the glory days of MSFT: the 1990s. Unfortunately for them, the rest of us are as happy as can be with the 21st Century and we have moved on from their monolithic, proprietary systems. We happily use Smartphones and Tablets (and Phablets) to accomplish the tasks we need to do in a faster and cheaper way.

Here are some stats from Gartner:

Gartner's figures cover mobile device sales in the third quarter of this year. Android has gone into overdrive: unit sales more than doubled year-on-year to 122.5 million, and the platform has a market share of 72.4 percent, up from 52.5 percent a year before. That's in mobile devices, not just smartphones.

Apple's iOS is in second place, with quarterly device sales up from 17.3 million to 23.5 million, but its market share down from 15 percent to 13.8 percent. Other mobile OSes are all in the single digits, from RIM's 5.3 percent share down to Microsoft's 2.4 percent.

Now compare this data with what Gartner said a month ago about PC shipments in the same quarter. The grand total for Q3? 87.5 million units. A year-on-year drop of 8.3 percent, since you ask.

In other words, Android device sales have an almost 3:2 ratio compared with PC shipments — and remember that shipments are always greater than sales (unless the product sells out). At this rate, the ratio will be 2:1 within a quarter or two.