Windows 7 is on track to becoming the no. 1 OS worldwide by the end of 2011

Sep 1, 2011 10:37 GMT  ·  By

Windows 7 is right on track to becoming the no. 1 operating system worldwide by the end of 2011, and the platform just reached a new milestone on its way there. At the end of August 2011, Windows 7’s usage share exploded to 30.60%, up from 29.66% the previous month, according to statistics shared by Net Applications.

Microsoft revealed earlier this summer that it had sold in excess of 400 million licenses of Windows Vista’s successor since the OS launched in late 2009.

Windows 7 is forecasted to sell another 200 million copies by the end of this year alone. With the number of sold licenses larger than 600 million, Windows 7 will dethrone Windows XP and become the new top dog on the OS market.

Speaking of XP, the decade-old operating system from the Redmond company is dangerously close to dipping under the 50% usage share mark.

XP continues to lose usage share, and is down to just 52.46% at the end of the past month from 52.80% in July 2011.

Windows Vista usage also continues to drop, decreasing to as little as 9.40% from 9.84% in the past couple of months.

In just two weeks Microsoft will kick start the first Windows 8-centric event. Dubbed BUILD, the conference will focus on the next generation of the Windows client, and the platform’s future impact on emerging form factors beyond the PC.

It appears that it matters little to customers buying PCs today that Microsoft is gearing up to deliver the first deep insight into Windows 8, judging by the strong growth momentum of Windows 7, a trend which is bound to continue even in 2012, when the software giant will get closer and closer to finalizing the next version of Windows.