Missing the point

Linux increased desktop market share by 119% over the past 12 months – but even so remains at 0.81% of total market share. Some see this as a huge disappointment and evidence that Windows will remain the One Ring.

However, I think a narrow focus on desktop market share is actually quite misleading. New devices with new capabilities are taking over the computing world. 'Most everybody carries a mobile phone, where Symbian and Linux are dominant, and Windows Mobile (which has nothing to do with Vista) has virtually no penetration.

So, if I count the "computers" in my house, there are: 2 linux laptops, two linux desktops, one vista laptop, one symbian mobile, one linux mobile, one linux landline and VOIP phone, one blackberry, one Windows CE and three linux embedded devices. Granted, I am a freak, and that increases the likelihood that I'll have linux devices – nine out of thirteen of them, in my case. But I only chose my OS on four of those nine linux devices, for the other five linux devices there is no alternative. And of course I'm not alone, as the TiVo is a linux device, and the linux-based wrt54g is the most popular router of all time.

Microsoft is innovating with a new category of device, a $10k coffee table. Good for them, it looks very sexy. Unfortunately for Microsoft it also looks dead simple to clone. Where's the new business model to go with it? Being too expensive won't make it exciting for long. Maybe they're hanging their hat on the Zune integration.

Meanwhile, Linux is making its way onto the motherboard (two different ways). Linux and other operating systems are being included in all kinds of new devices. A million iPhones have been sold already, and they run Mac OSX (the same thing that runs on the Mac). People don't think about the OS in these devices, and they don't care. The focus on desktop as the measure of success is so very 20th century.