International Data Corporation (IDC) released preliminary sales figures for operating system sales during 1997 on Tuesday. According to the company, 76.6 million operating systems shipped in 1997, a 2.3 percent increase from 1996. The most unsurprising news, of course, is that Microsoft has extended its lead in operating systems, and now accounts for 87% of all OS shipments. IBM and Apple combined accounts for only 6.6%, while UNIX earned a whopping 1% share.
Another non-surprise: Windows 95 is the overwhelming OS champion, with 69.4% of the market. Windows NT follows with 9.2%. Bringing up the rear is Windows 3.1 with 7.7%, the Mac OS with 4.6%, DOS with 2.3%, UNIX (1%), and OS/2 with 0.8%. Interestingly, even Windows 3.1 and DOS--which haven't been upgraded in three years--continue to outsell all non-Microsoft operating systems