Usage share of operating systems Usage share of operating systems The usage share of operating systems is the percentage of computing devices that run each operating system at any particular time. All such figures are necessarily estimates because data about operating system share is difficult to obtain; there are few reliable primary sources—and no agreed methodologies for its collection. In the personal computing platform area of smartphones and watches two systems dominate: Google's Android with over 2.7 billion users and Apple's iOS and macOS combined with over 1.3 billion users. In the area of desktop and laptop computers, Microsoft Windows is generally above 75% in
Internet Explorer 4 98, in addition the Internet Explorer layout engine Trident was introduced. It attained just over 60% market share by March 1999 when IE5 was released. In August 2001 when Internet Explorer 6 was released, IE4.x had dropped to 7% market share and IE5 had increased to 80%. IE4 market share dropped under 1% by 2004. The Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview was released in April 1997, and Platform Preview 2.0 in July that year. Internet Explorer 4 was released to the public in September, 1997 and deepened the level of integration between the web browser and the underlying operating system.