…And the Winner Is…

…And the Winner Is…
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Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows is the dominant operating system for computers, at least at the PC level, but the Apple (AAPL) MacOS has been the ruler of 2nd place, albeit a fraction of Window’s leading share, but 2020 was an unusual year in the CE space, to say the least, and it seems that Google’s (GOOG) Chrome OS took on the Apple challenge last year and won.  Normally the share of the Chrome OS would be directly tied to the sale of Chromebooks, devices that are essentially gateways to the internet and the cloud, with relatively small storage and applications, and that was still the case last year, however because of the many programs that helped students (and others) to work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of the less expensive Chromebooks increased.
Of course, that change in direction is touted by some as a warning shot to both Apple and Microsoft that their days of dominating the OS market are over and to quote Fatal Attraction, “I won’t be ignored”.  Speculation that application developers are taking note and suggestions that anyone who provides a product or service over the internet should allocate the same resources to Chrome as for MacOS and Windows seems a bit premature.  Without sounding condescending, while we would expect Chrome OS to continue to grow over time as generational changes filter through the CE space, last year was a very unusual year and while 2021 might continue that trend, at least for part of the year, the rate of change for Chrome OS will likely slow when the pandemic slows.  It might be a bit early to declare a major victory…JOHO