Microsoft maintains OS domination

Microsoft's hold on the operating system (OS) market remained strong in 2010, according to Gartner.

The latest figures from the analyst firm showed the software giant held 78.6 per cent market share throughout 2010, slightly growing its previous year's figure by just under one per cent.

However, its revenue rose by 8.8 per cent, moving from almost $22 billion (13.2 billion) in 2009 to nearly $24 billion last year.

Despite not coming anywhere near the leader in market share, Apple was the fastest growing of the consumer operating systems, as its revenues went up by 15.8 per cent equating to $520 million in 2010.

Red Hat showed the most significant revenue growth though excluding Oracle's 7,682 per cent growth due to its lack of operating system back in 2009 rising 18 per cent to $620 million. It also accounted for over 50 per cent of the market share for Linux server operating systems.

The overall market revenue hit an impressive $30.4 billion over the 12 months, up 7.8 per cent from 2009, according to Gartner.

"Generally, client OSs outperformed server OSs and grew 9.3 per cent in 2010, while the server OS segment grew 5.7 per cent," said Matthew Cheung, principal research analyst at Gartner.

"The long-pending demand for PC refreshment was unleashed as the economy stepped out from the economic turndown, which drove growth of client OSs."