In a rather surprising turn of events, the market share of Windows XP slid below 18 percent, according to the latest data from market analyst firm Net Applications. Furthermore, on another happy note, the combined market share of Windows 8 and 8.1 rose above 16%, the best figure since the inception of the Windows 8.x operating systems. Let’s take a look at other major changes.
First off, Windows 7, the operating system with over 50% market share, scored further improvements, going up from 52.71% to 53.05%. Possible reason: over the past few months OEMs have been trying to sell as many Windows 7-powered systems as they can. Since October was the last month they could buy licensed copies of Windows 7 from Microsoft, many OEMs including Dell did marketing to lure in more customers.
The market share of Windows 8.1 reached a new height this month, going up from 6.67% to 10.92%. The market share of Windows 8 is also up from 5.59% it had last month to 5.88% according to the latest data. Combined, Windows 8 and 8.1 now has 16.8% of market share, the best figure the two have managed to score so far.
The other biggest surprise was a drop in Windows XP’s popularity. Despite going out of support earlier this year, the decade old operating system still managed over 23 percent share till the end of September. The operating system now has slid to 17.18%. A new low in years.
Windows Vista also suffered a decline, going down from 3.07% to 2.82%. Interestingly, Windows 10 Technical Preview, which has been getting overwhelming response from consumers was nowhere to be found in the data. Perhaps, the Net Applications doesn’t account for preview versions of operating systems.
Further reading: Microsoft, Windows 8, Windows 8.1
