Report: Windows XP Still Dominates U.S. PCs

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Recent stats indicate that Windows 7 is catching up to Vista on the market, however XP still rules the world.

Analytics firm StatCounter reports that Windows 7 has finally jumped ahead of Windows Vista in total market share worldwide. The data is based on an analysis of 15 billion page views for August 2010 collected from the StatCounter network of over three million websites.

According to August numbers, Windows 7 took a 19.4-percent worldwide market share whereas Vista only racked in 17.7-percent. Unsurprisingly, Windows XP still dominates the Microsoft OS market, taking a 55.4-percent total market share.

"Africa, Asia and South America are driving the increased market share for Windows 7," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Although there has been extremely good growth for Windows 7 in Europe and North America, it has yet to overtake Vista in these regions."

As indicated, Windows Vista is still outperforming Windows 7 here in the States, taking in 24.7-percent compared to Windows 7's 20.7-percent. Windows XP still rules the local market however, taking in a meatier 50.6-percent.

In Europe, the gap isn't quite so large. While XP still commands a large 47.5-percent market share, Windows Vista retains a slightly larger 22.7-percent market share over Windows 7's smaller 21.9-percent.

"The installed base of Windows Vista was very low in Africa, Asia and South America and now users in these regions are upgrading straight from Windows XP to Windows 7 giving rise to this leap in market share," Cullen added.

Consumers interested in individual country analysis can head here.

Kevin Parrish
65 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mindless728
    XP just needs to die already, there should only be support and updates for businesses
    Reply
  • Poisoner
    I bet half those PCs are running Pentium 4s.
    Reply
  • Arethel
    The number for Windows XP is likely much higher considering many computers are not connected to the internet.
    Reply
  • treefrog07
    XP stills works well for me on 4 machines. W7 also works well on one. But some of my hardware and software have no W7 support. The newer games look better in W7. Our 3,600 computers at work are still on XP and will remain so for for the foreseeable future - software compatibility issues, you know....
    Reply
  • foscooter
    "I bet half those PCs are running Pentium 4s,"

    Exactly! My company wanted to upgrade our PC's, since the warranty ran out in 2008. Bu then they saw how many we have, and the "imaging" software isn't supported in Win7.
    Reply
  • ScoobyJooby-Jew
    dont knock p4's. I had one. the only crippling thing about that system was the lack of pci e. At least with my p4+ati 9250, i could alt+tab in and out of WoW or any game that could run. Fat chance doing that with my phemon IIx4+5750. All my games crash when i alt+tab now
    Reply
  • accolite
    I use XP 64 at work and xp32/64/7 at home, must say my gaming is a lot less buggy when on XP, switching apps is a breeze on XP while 7 freezes sometimes.
    Reply
  • syrious1
    obviously you cant upgrade to win 7 from XP without losing anything, that is why 50% of the market is still running XP, its a shame too, a recent report stated that over 40 hours per employee were lost every year just rebooting and waiting for XP to shut down, quit beating the horse on life support and just let it die.
    Reply
  • hazemalpha
    I am still running on XP too cause it is more stable and light
    Reply
  • visa
    ...and grass is green.

    XP has been the standard for most businesses for years now. At least give Windows 7 a few years to catch up.
    Reply