Avast most used antivirus worldwide according to OPSWAT

RussJK

Was just reading that according to OPSWAT, Avast is the most used antivirus program and most used security vendor:
http://www.opswat.com/media/reports/MarketShareReportMarch2011.pdf

According to the report, worldwide figures for specific vendors:
Avast 16%
Avira 13%
AVG 11%
Symantec 9%
McAfee 4%

and specific programs in March 2011:
Avast free 11.5%
Avira free 11%
MSE 7%
AVG 6.77%
McAfee 3%

It's encouraging to see users making good choices, but I notice that their main sources of data come from:
1. Appremover, an excellent program designed to remove security software like Mcafee so that a user can install another (often Avast or Avira)
AND
2. Am I OESIS OK?, which is a security tool to determine interoperability of security programs, and other diagnostics

The report states that the samples are "assumed to be representative of the market" because the tools are widely accessible, but I really question that.

I think the majority of users who run Appremover are doing so to get rid of something like McAfee, and are going to move to something free like Avast or Avira Antivir. Similarly, the kind of users who need to run the OESIS tool aren't going to be your average user. For this reason, the sample is heavily biased towards very techie users as well as general users who are unhappy with the usual paid-licence defaults that come with systems (like McAfee, Bullguard, Norton, etc).

I think this report more answers the question, "What security solutions are knowledgeable users employing?" rather than what most people are using.

There is no way that McAfee only has 4% of the marketshare, when it's heavily pushed onto so many new systems. The kinds of users that don't know any better will be happy with their 'protected by McAfee' computer and will never contribute their data points through either Appremover or OESIS OK - and so will never contribute to the outcome of this marketshare report.

So despite that fact that I like what the report is saying, I seriously doubt its validity.

bengalknights

This report doesnt include Kaspersky, A fairly large amount of people use this so this report must be wrong or paid for by a related company.