I just saw Net Applications report showing that Apple's iOS has overtaken 'Linux'. I wonder if that is true. I am struggling to understand the Net Application matrix; I was never good at maths.
While they have clubbed all Apple devices together to show iOS figures, in case of Linux/Android they have (a) included only mobile phones (b) I don't know why they considered Android as non-Linux.

It's hard for me to understand from this chart if the Linux figures are inclusive of Android or they have been registered separately?
 

If Linux figures include Android (let's look at the month of August) that means there were .85% Linux devices and .20% Android devices. That raises the questions which are the remaining 65% of non Android Linux devices? Is there some hidden Linux OS which has not been disclosed to the world? One reason might be -- many feature phones are also powered by Linux, but they are not used to browse the internet so as to take over .65% share.
 
Let's do it the other way and that Linux figures do not include Android then in the chart comparing iOS and Linux, Linux figures must be a combination of Linux + Android (Android is after all Linux) thus it should have been .85% + .20% which equals to 1.5% -- a figure quite close to iOS.
 
Similar calculation for the month of July would mean .18% plus .93% equals to 1.11% a figure higher than iOS's 1.06.
 
I am quite puzzled with these numbers. May be I failed to understand. 
 
Additionally, While the report clubbed all the devices that run iOS -- iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, Android is left with only mobile phones. Of course the market for Android tablet is still in the making.
 
As we know, Linux is much more than just mobile phones. It powers world's servers and super computers. It runs the embedded systems of vehicles, ATM machines, network routers. How about Amazon Kindle, Sony eReader, Nook...and whole lot of other Linux powered eBook readers? How about Navigation devices like Tom Tom?
 
Linux has become omnipresent, and unlike Apple iOS which is tracked fiercely, Linux neither has the need nor the desire to show sales figures. It's like the air you breath, it's like the water you drink.

Now, please help me understand these numbers. Yes, I may be wrong too; my mistakes are not proprietary!

  Follow Muktware editor Swapnil Bhartiya on Google Plus.