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Windows 8 Market Share Increases to 2.2% in January

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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.

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45 Comments Comment from the forums
  • internetlad 05 February 2013 05:26
    can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.

    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.
    Reply
  • dalethepcman 05 February 2013 05:35
    Microsoft wouldn't have to blame poor performance on anyone if they had metro disabled for non touchscreen devices...

    That may have been Balmers plan all along though...
    Reply
  • wannabepro 05 February 2013 05:35
    I hate Windows XP. I realize it may have been great at the time, but we are so far past that now..

    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)
    Reply
  • ananke 05 February 2013 05:43
    yey, 2.2% until they hiked the price from $39.99 to $199. Let me guess, it is going to be still 2.2% Jan next year.
    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.
    Reply
  • shikamaru31789 05 February 2013 05:45
    internetladcan't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.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.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.
    Reply
  • wannabepro 05 February 2013 05:49
    shikamaru31789I 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..
    Reply
  • A Bad Day 05 February 2013 06:02
    internetladcan't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.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.
    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.
    Reply
  • InvalidError 05 February 2013 06:04
    internetladcan't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons 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.
    Reply
  • Ragnar-Kon 05 February 2013 06:07
    internetladcan't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP. How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard?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.
    anankeMS should go the Apple model - $29.99 OSs every year and develop the Windows Market.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.
    Reply
  • Neverdyne 05 February 2013 06:12
    Many of those Windows XP users are work computers that are set up for specific functions and don't really need to be upgraded. They aren't connected to the internet or used to make documents, they simply run one program and do one function inside the company. I've seen many like these all over.

    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.
    Reply