"In its most recent report based on its UMDs (Ultra-mobile Devices) study, which covers netbooks, MIDs, and UMPCs, ABI Research says that almost 35 million netbooks will be shipped by manufacturers in 2009.
"ABI did not publicly break out sales by specific segment or operating system, but a ComputerWorld story today by Eric Lai quotes ABI analyst Jeff Orr as saying that the study shows that 32 percent (about 11 million netbooks) of this year's netbook shipments will be used with a Linux-based operating system. Since Apple has yet to release a netbook, the remaining 68 percent belongs to Microsoft Windows, projects ABI.
"As Lai points out, despite the two to one edge for Windows, this is a far cry from the 96 percent advantage Microsoft claimed to have enjoyed in April. Microsoft has now updated its projection, telling Lai that "over 93 percent of worldwide small notebook PCs run Windows today." This would suggest that even Microsoft agrees that Linux netbook sales have rebounded, at least slightly.
