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Six months ago, Microsoft announced solemnly that Windows is installed on 96% sold in the U.S. netbooks.

Manager of Public Relations Corporation Brandon LeBlanc (Brandon LeBlanc), who made this statement, referred to company data, NPD, which conducted the study in November, December and January, by the way, analysts said then about 90, instead of 96 percent, but it is not so important – it was clear that Windows is the most popular operating system on the market of mini-laptops, and serious competitors it has not.

Recently, another research firm – ABI Research – published a similar study. However, in this case, the experts evaluated are no longer an American, and global netbook market and operating systems. As a starting point they have data on the sales of these devices in the first half of 2009 and made the following findings: per year worldwide will be implemented up to 35 million netbooks, with about 32% of them (approximately 11 million) will be managed by open source operating system ( In other words, “Linux”). Proportion of different versions of Windows does not exceed 68%.

Representatives of ABI Research claimed that the figures, which formed the basis for the study were obtained directly from the manufacturers of netbooks – among them such grandees as Acer, ASUS, BenQ, Dell, Fujitsu, Gigabyte, HP, and Lenovo. Furthermore, were interviewed and the company producing netbook for education – Classmate PC.

Another interesting prediction for the future. According to ABI Research, by 2013 the proportion of open software platforms on the market of netbooks surpass the position of making Microsoft. His opinion analysts reinforce the fact that among the manufacturers of ultramobile PCs is growing interest in energy-efficient ARM-processors, which version of Windows for personal computers are not compatible. (Indeed, in this case, Linux is the only valid option, as Windows CE is terrible in itself.) Moreover, the netbooks are in great demand in emerging markets, where the transition to free software is crucial – because it allows you to reduce the cost of netbooks.

However, one thing – the market of the world, and quite another – Russia’s market. In shops the largest national retail chains find netbooks with Linux is very difficult: in the best case the buyer “shines” to find a full-fledged laptop with the operating system. In general, the range of such institutions is designed primarily for medium-sized customers, Kojima Give Windows. According to the manager of Public Relations “Eldorado” Anton Panteleyev, the network ceased to purchase netbooks with Linux operating system because of their low dynamics of sales for the year – computers with preinstalled Microsoft software used by a much higher demand.

Faint hope fans of Linux leaves only “Yandex.Market” issued in the search results about 20 models with this OS (compared to 120 with Windows). But the search for online shopping – a piece is not very reliable: not the fact that the obtained models will be available in online electronics stores. Some sites are still allegedly sold ASUS Eee PC 701, but attempts to order this netbook with success, as a rule, not the end – you will report that it is long gone on sale (tested on itself).

Alex Vasyukov consultant VDEL Ltd., Offers a look at the statistics of the company Dell, which is clearly more transparent than the results of studies of third firm. Indeed, the American manufacturer installs the Linux operating system in the third part of its netbooks. Here he delivers only 30% of these most clearly not in the U.S. and Russia. Where? Markets something really very much and, according to Alexei Vasyukova, to assess share of operating systems must be approached very carefully – the situation in different parts of the world can be radically opposed. Yes, and Linux vendors are different.

Reasons not to believe ABI Research we do not: just our country is not among those where Linux on netbooks is especially popular. This is normal – out, iPhone perfectly “scatters” in the mass regions, but its sales in Russia in recent years there have been some problems. Finally, who knows, maybe the buyers abroad gladly take the cheaper netbooks with Linux, to save a few tens of dollars and … That’s right, to borrow a friends external drive. It is understandable why.

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