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Windows 8 and 8.1 combined market share breaches 10%

by Mark Tyson on 2 January 2014, 11:00

Tags: Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8

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The end of 2013 marks two months since Windows 8.1 became available as Microsoft’s latest version of its Windows operating system. The latest market share data from Net Applications has stated that Windows 8 and 8.1 have now passed the 10 per cent market share milestone, as they gained 0.85 per cent between them during December (from 9.30 per cent to 10.15 per cent).

With Windows 8 now holding a market share of 6.65 per cent, and Windows 8.1 holding a share of 3.50 per cent, it is evident that Windows 8 usage has gone down by 0.01 per cent whilst Windows 8.1 usage increased by 0.86 per cent.

However, it may surprise some observers to see an increase in market share for Windows 7, with a rise from 46.64 per cent in November to 49.26 per cent by the end of December, gaining a significant 2.62 per cent; that's much more growth than Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 combined.

The biggest mover of all earlier Windows versions was Windows XP, as it dropped a whopping 3.38 per cent during the month, dropping below the 30 per cent mark as we reached the end of 2013. Nevertheless, Windows XP maintains its second place, where Windows 7 remains at the top spot in OS usage figures. HEXUS readers will be well aware that Windows XP will no longer receive updates as part of its extended support from Microsoft, from April this year.

Other statistics

Whilst Net Applications collects data by capturing 160 million unique visitor impressions each month as they monitor around 40, 000 websites for clients, it is not the only company to release such market share data. StatCounter is another popular service which released similar data (showing Windows 8.X at 7.78 per cent). Also according to WinBeta, Valve’s Steam Hardware and Software Survey also producedfigures for the latest OS usage, as it collects data by its game client and measures hardware and software stats based on this on a monthly basis. Valve's latest figure is a 20.06 per cent combined total for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 usage.



HEXUS Forums :: 19 Comments

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I have 8.1 on my rig, and it's just fine; but I only got it because of the Ā£25 upgrade deal on Win8 - I replaced XP with Win7 on my son's PC yesterday and it reminded me that there's no compelling reason to upgrade from 7 to 8. A well patched Vista install is pretty close to Win7 too. They pushed 8 much too quickly IMO.

So, all in all, the slow take-up doesn't surprise me in the least.
Spreadie
A well patched Vista install is pretty close to Win7 too.
If by “patched” you mean “replaced by” then yes, I agree.
Win7 vs XP growth is expected. Many corporations are being forced to finally upgrade from XP due to lack of support and most will choose windows 7 over 8 in corp environments.
it may surprise some observers to see an increase in market share for Windows 7
Only those observers who have never heard of this whole ‘enterprise’ thing.
With XP support coming to an end, XP -> 7 transitions are hitting the final push, as the last few holdouts get kicked off whatever ancient boxes they're cling to and given new Win7 installs (with XP in a VM for the last few holdout programs).
I have 3 PCs in the house and 2 are running W7 and the other is running XP.
I use W7 on my gaming computer as its stable, I did give thought to upgrading to W8 when I added a larger SSD, but at the time there were too many issues. Also I am in the process of building a new PC for my parents they have the XP machine and I will be putting W7 on that machine also.