( CNN ) -- Aside from the iconic ( and sadly discontinued ) TV ads , the `` I 'm a Mac '' vs. `` I 'm a PC '' battle has never been a particularly close one , at least in terms of sheer numbers . To put it bluntly , Apple gets creamed . But a leading tech analyst has put together a graphic showing that the ratio of Windows-based computers to Macs has tightened dramatically and is closer than it has been in a decade and a half . Analyst Horace Dediu of Asymco has been following the Mac-PC war for years and recently crunched the numbers to show that , in 2011 , Microsoft 's PC desktops and laptops outsold Apple 's Macs by a less-than 20-to-1 ratio . Which , sure , is still lopsided . But it 's the lowest margin since 1996 and is roughly the same as 1985 , shortly after the Mac was first released . And it 's significantly tighter than in 2004 , the PC 's high-water mark , when it was outselling Macs by a ratio approaching 60-to-1 . Factor in mobile gadgets like smartphones and tablets , where Apple has so far outshined Microsoft ( though the Windows-makers hope to change that with the new Surface tablet ) and you 've got a playing field that , if not level , is certainly less tilted than it used to be . The shift , Dediu wrote Wednesday , began in earnest in 2004 . `` Although PC volumes continued to grow , they did so more slowly and the Mac grew faster , '' he said in a blog post . `` What coincided with this was the emergence of portable computing . The MacBook became easily differentiable as a `` better '' laptop . It was not faster , did not have more storage or any key metrics being used to sell PCs . It was just better as an integrated product . '' That 's been the biggest shift since the mid-90s , Dediu writes , when the success of Windows '95 gave a similar boost to Microsoft . The PC advantage steadily climbed from 1995 to 2004 , dipping only once in a 10-year span . When iPhones , iPads and other mobile devices are factored in , Microsoft 's advantage sits at about 2-to-1 , Dediu said , and the two could break even within the next two years . It 's unclear how much he factored in Windows 8 , Microsoft 's new operating system that will run on both PCs and portable devices with the goal of marrying them together into a seamless computing experience . But Dediu says that Microsoft 's evaporating lead could be bad news for the software company . `` The consequences are dire for Microsoft , '' he wrote . `` The wiping out of any platform advantage around Windows will render it vulnerable to direct competition . This is not something it had to worry about before . `` Windows will have to compete not only for users , but for developer talent , investment by enterprises and the implicit goodwill it has had for more than a decade . ''
Analyst shows Mac vs. PC gap narrowing . PCs outsold Macs by a ratio of about 20-to-1 last year . That 's still big , but way down from nearly 60-to-1 in 2004 . Comment: