Do you remember when Windows 8 was released and everyone was raging about the missing Start button and the introduction of the Start screen? Well, it looks like people are getting interested in using Windows 8 again.
According to NetMarketShare, Windows 8 is now responsible for almost 8 percent of all active PC use worldwide. NewMarketShare states that there are 1.5 billion active PC users, so in essence there are a whopping 110 million users on Windows 8!
In comparison, Apple reported in June that only 72 million users were using Mac OS X. Mac OS was initially released on March 24, 2001. Now, compare this to when Windows 8 got released. If you don’t remember, it was October 26, 2012. With only 10 months since it was released to the public, Windows 8 had 1.53 times the amount of users compared to Mac OS X.
Between July and August 2013, Windows 8 usage jumped 2 percent from 5.4 percent to 7.41 percent. This is Window’s 8 biggest usage jump ever since it got released. But it’s not like a couple hundred thousand people came out of nowhere, right? Windows XP users dropped from 37.19 percent in July to 33.66 percent in August. Let’s not forget Windows 7, where 45.63 percent of users still use it.
In case you’re wondering how this happened all of a sudden, we don’t know yet. This may be because of Microsoft decreasing prices of their Surface devices, or students buying devices during back-to-school sales, or just a one-time thing.
30 million new Windows 8 users is indeed very good for Microsoft’s part, but the results would have been better if the Windows 8 team released Windows 8.1 in time for the back-to-school sales.
