How many computers are there worldwide?

Answer 1

There is no definite answer, and there is no way anyone can get a practical answer to this question either. Computers are constantly manufactured, and constantly taken out of service.

There are some guesses that show there could be a billion, and that the count could double to two billion in a few more years. At least for general purpose PCs. (See Related Links)

The second related link, in case you want to watch the OS wars or various other subsets of the numbers for what kinds of computers hit the internet, then this also may help, understanding that every percentage point is probably nearly ten million computers NOW (as of 4/2008), and the value of every percentage point keeps going up every day.

Part of the problem is where you draw the line. If any computational device, including those microcontrollers embedded into things like cellular phones, MP3 players, TV sets, stereos, etc. count, then there are already billions upon billions of computers. In larger systems like a car, the engine is run by a computer, the stereo has a computer in it, the dashboard might contain another computer to operate digital gauges, a DVD player for the back seats has a computer, and a GPS navigation device has a computer. Not to mention any security system like 'OnStar' that communicates over the cellular network and manages the door locks and talks to the engine computer, among other things. Most peripherals connected to a computer also contain embedded computers. A printer or scanner has its own microprocessor. So does your wireless router and MODEM. Even your keyboard and mouse have simple microcontrollers.

Another part of the problem is the people who collect this data tend to be a little tight-fisted with it. They want to sell the information, and in the contract of sale, they forbid the buyer from releasing it. Both of the links in this article go to sites that collect the data, but only give away a subset of it for public consumption.