Windows 8 Market Share Increases to 2.2% in January
Windows 7 remained in first place with a 44.4 percent share.
Windows 8's market share during January 2013 increased from 1.72 percent to 2.2 percent. According to Net Applications, Microsoft's latest Windows operating system accounted for 2.26 percent of the OS market during January. It represents a jump from 1.72 percent in December and 1.09 percent in November.
January's figures placed Windows 8 in fifth place behind several other operating systems. It trails behind Apple's Mac OS X 10.8, which has a market share of 2.44 percent.
Windows 7 continued its dominance in first place with a 44.4 percent share, but that's a slight drop from December. Following that platform was Windows XP, which accounted for 39.5 percent of the market, a slight increase from December. In third place, Vista settled for a 5.24 percent share.
Windows 8's poor start in the market has seen Microsoft placing the blame on PC vendors for not launching enough compelling touchscreen tablets powered by the platform.
That may have been Balmers plan all along though...
Windows 7 drops
Windows XP RISES
What kind of bizzaro world is this lol? Only thing that makes sense is Windows Vista dropping.
A lot of businesses and public buildings (schools, police stations, hospitals etc) still use Windows xp.
Either they lack the funding for new computers, or there's no incentive to upgrade.
How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons to upgrade.
I suppose if all you're doing is internet browsing and email, you don't need much.
That may have been Balmers plan all along though...
In 2003, I imagined 2013 to have stuff like the screens in Halo: Forward Unto Dawn.
(The ones that the kid uses to hack stuff with)
Btw. smooth and beautiful OS. But we are not 2009 anymore, the market is different. MS should go the Apple model - $29.99 OSs every year and develop the Windows Market.
I still have XP on my PC. I built this back in 2008, so I stuck with XP instead of getting crappy Vista. I haven't upgraded because there was really no reason to, none of the games I've played on here required Vista/7/8. However, I will be building a new PC later this year to play multi-platform and PC exclusive games that come out over the next few years, so I'll definitely be upgrading since the latest games require Windows 7 or 8.
Vista with Service Pack 2 wasn't half bad.. It was a bit slower but meh, I'll take it with the added graphical goodness.. We don't make high-power rigs just to run software from 2001..
A lot of businesses and public buildings (schools, police stations, hospitals etc) still use Windows xp.
Either they lack the funding for new computers, or there's no incentive to upgrade.
It also has a compelling $80 reason not to upgrade: sticking to XP costs nothing while legit upgrades cost $80-150.
My biggest pet peeve with Win8: no option to disable "Always on top" for the taskbar. Unfortunately, this option is also missing from Win7 so I would have to downgrade to Vista to get it back... but then I would lose USB3 support.
They plan to cling to it as long as it continues to work.
The Bank of America trading floor in New York City for example... they make millions of dollars every making trades off of 6-screen systems running Windows XP. Why bother upgrading the entire trading floor (100+ machines) to Windows 7 when it won't make Bank of America any more money than what they are already making from Windows XP.
And that's the problem, for some people there is a compelling reason to upgrade. For other people, especially businesses, there isn't a compelling reason. You gotta be able to justify the cost.
MS can't do that. Apple makes money off of the customer by selling them hardware, so they can afford to sell people their software for cheap. Microsoft is a software company, they don't make any money off the hardware when people buy their Dells and HPs. That money goes to Dell and HP.
For example, I just saw a Windows XP computer being used as a data logger on a hydroelectric plant. The sole function of the computer is to log some measurements using a custom program made specifically for that when the plant was created. Why should they upgrade such a machine to Windows 7/8? It would be a massive cost with no benefit at all.
Windows 7 drops
Windows XP RISES
What kind of bizzaro world is this lol? Only thing that makes sense is Windows Vista dropping.
Enough said right there. Windows 7 was and is still a great OS. No need for such a sudden change.
Nice try Microsoft but no one is buying that. Windows 8 poor start is because Windows 8 is crap. It has nothing to to with the big box OEMs.
Most people still don't get it. XP is still 2x faster than win 7.
Just all the die hard fan boys that have no clue scream the Bloated OS is faster and better.
Well that is debatable, but.. they do have one thing right higher versions of winblowzz do support higher versions of Dirrect-X ... well that is arguably better, but than again people are looking to the better standard. Open-GL.
Nuff rambling.. ( back to my speedy XP system.
The main thing is that XP is archaic in PC terms. It was not built for the hardware you have. I had Vista on a C2Q with 4GB and a HD4870/HD5870 and it was great. 7 is better though by a good amount.
8 on the other hand is very nice. I do use the DT mostly but to open apps I hit the Start button on my keyboard and just type which is nice. Also file transfers are much faster than 7 and more consistent. As well the Task manager and file transfer app are much better an detailed.
I suggest 8 as it is a decent OS and if you miss the Start button, get an app for it. If not it works just as well as if not better than 7.
http://i50.tinypic.com/20gmaue.jpg
for all who don't have a dx11 capable graphic, xp is more than enough, steady, and reliable. it's a petty that some games won't run in this older windows, but i can't find a single person who tell me a good reason to upgrade to win 7, other than "win 7 it's cool... xp is a 10 years old OS... the windows are so lame in 2D" come on!!
There i have just corrected the statistic.
I give you a very good reason. Make that a few:
1) 64-bit Win XP sucks. You need Windows 7 64-bit to make use of all those cheap RAMs over 4GB.
2) XP is long dead with no updates or upgrades.
3) Yes, i do want to play DX11 games. Do you want to play PS3 or PS1??
4) Most new hardware not optimized for XP.
5) Lots of new apps does not work with XP.
6) New tech like RST, SRT ...does it works with XP???
7) Win 7 boots way faster than XP with new hardware and tons of stuff loaded.
8) XP is fugly.
Why the hell do you still wants to stick back to dinosaur OS ???
Btw, i am day 1 adopter of Vista, Win 7. But i Win 8 i have to dump.