Feb 1, 2011 17:31 GMT  ·  By

Windows 7 is feeding its hunger for growth with Windows XP and Windows Vista. January 2011 brought with it another strong increase in market share for Windows 7 in the detriment of its predecessors. Windows 7’s usage share jumped from 20.87% at the end of 2010 to as much as 22.31% in January 2011 according to Net Applications, share that comes at the expense of XP and Vista.

Furthermore, the pace at which Windows 7 is cannibalizing the two previous Windows client releases shows no signs of decelerating.

At the start of January 2010, Windows XP accounted for 66.15% usage share with Vista runner up with as much as 17.47%, well over two times as much as Windows 7 which back then was at 7.57%.

Fast forward 12 months, and Windows 7 and Vista have switched places. Vista’s usage share dwindled down to as little as 11.66%, almost half compared to that of its successor.

XP is also down having lost considerable usage share, being left with just 55.26%, a percentage which is destined to drop even lower by the end of 2011.

The software giant’s latest statistics related to Windows 7 sales reveal that over 300 million licenses of the operating system were sold worldwide since the platform was introduced on October 22nd, 2010.

As impressive as this number is, 2011 will bring with it only more sales of Windows 7, as the vast majority of new computers shipping worldwide come preinstalled with the OS.

If I had to put my money on it I would say that Windows 7 will easily fly the 30% usage share later this year, and will begin breathing down XP’s the neck, so to speak.

However, the overall success and strong growth of Windows 7 on the market isn’t really helping Windows overall since the platform continues to lose usage share.

Net Applications reveals that the total usage share for Windows dropped under the 90% milestone to 89.70% as of January 2011.

Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.

The Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Images are available for download here.

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