Surface Remains Leading Windows 8 Device
HP leads vendor-based market with 22 percent share, while Microsoft drops down to 6th from No. 2.
Microsoft's Surface RT tablet remains the most popular Windows 8/RT device, but it doesn't dominate the market for the new operating system the way it did last month.
According to AdDuplex, a Windows ad-serving firm, the tablet's share of usage among Window 8/RT devices has experienced a decrease by almost half when compared to last month's statistics. During November, Surface accounted for an 11 percent share of all usage on the platform.
The device's position in the market was determined through the collection of data stemming from 71 active Windows 8/RT apps on the AdDuplex network on December 7. Surface's lead is "not as stunning as it was last month -- down 5% to 6% overall this month," it said.
In terms of vendors, HP is the market leader with 22 percent, followed by Dell and Acer. Microsoft settled for 6th, which is down from No. 2 last month.
Microsoft, who is said to have cut Surface's production by half, is expected to sell one million units of the tablet during the fourth quarter.


Exactly what they're trying to do. They want to drag all existing Windows users into their new walled garden, where they control the sale/installation of apps and get a 30% cut. It's backfired on them, and not only their tablets/mobiles are failing, now they're in trouble with desktop Windows users. Looking forward to rollback of changes in Windows 9.
I thought Microsoft said they sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses.
Nope, look at other devices in the chart: Pavillion, Inspiron, Series 3, SatelliteIt's all Windows 8 devices, including desktops that got upgrades.It's data from an ad-serving firm, so it includes everything that reports running Windows 8 / RT, even pirated copies.
Edit: On second look, could be, but previous stats from this firm didn't say "devices" but "overall market", and Surface even had a higher share then. Besides, Windows 8 passed 1% market share at the beginning of December, and since there are 1.6 billion computers running Windows by latest estimates, 1% of that would be 16 million (including pirated versions and preview releases). Microsoft might have sold 40 million licenses (whatever that means), but machines with those licenses just aren't being used yet.
I'm not seeing any desktops here, so I'm betting that I'm right in saying the announcement a few weeks ago that Windows 8 sold 40 million licenses was for either for only Desktops or for all devices while the chart in this article is tablets and laptops only.
I'm not seeing any desktops here, so I'm betting that I'm right in saying the announcement a few weeks ago that Windows 8 sold 40 million licenses was for either for only Desktops or for all devices while the chart in this article is tablets and laptops only.
Yeah, I didn't read your messsage correctly, but it looks like the numbers do include desktops based on total reported Windows 8 market share and total estimated Windows user base. There just aren't 40 million Windows 8 / RT devices being used out there.