Irish computer users don’t seem too eager to upgrade, stats show

Mar 6, 2014 10:09 GMT  ·  By

Windows XP remains a very popular operating system these days, even though Microsoft will kill it in approximately 30 days, and stats provided for various markets across the globe confirm that the software giant is not even close to moving all users to a newer platform.

In Ireland, for example, one in 10 PCs are still powered by Windows XP, according to third-party stats published by The Independent, which means that Microsoft’s ancient operating system has a market share of at least 10 percent.

Windows 7 remains the leading operating system in the country with 51.4 percent, followed by Apple’s Mac OS X with 11.4 percent. Windows 8 is still behind with 9.2 percent, while Windows Vista is among the last OS versions in the charts with 7.8 percent.

Windows XP support will be officially retired on April 8, so after this date, no computer still running it will receive updates and security patches, which means that any potential vulnerability could be exploited easily through an active Internet connection.

Worldwide, Windows XP is still holding a 29 percent market share, enough to become the second most used operating system after Windows 7, which continues to be the undisputed leader with more than half of the entire market.