14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP continues to be the dominant platform on the operating system market, but its user base is slipping away at a steady pace.
Windows Vista was never made for greatness, and its share of the OS market has also been shrinking slowly but surely, not that anybody is paying attention, or would shed a tear for the operating system.
Meanwhile Windows 7 is growing into what it appears to be the platform that will end up dethroning Windows XP.
According to statistics from Net Applications, Windows 7’s market share is on the brink of reaching the 20% mark, with the OS at 19.69% at the end of November 2010.
It’s clear that Windows 7 will manage to grow to over 20% of the OS market by the end of the year, especially considering the strong uptake rate of the operating system, which shows no signs of dwindling.
As of November 2010 the usage share of XP is less than three times as large as that of Windows 7. Windows XP is down to just 57.63% the past month from 58.92% at the end of October.
But the trend is now established, and there is nowhere to go but down for Windows XP, especially is Windows 7’s usage rate continues to jump by over 1% month to month.
Meanwhile Windows Vista dropped from 12.93% to just 12.67%, a small decrease indeed, but it’s somewhat understandable of customers that upgraded just a few years ago to postpone buying a new OS as much as possible.
According to the software giant, Windows 7 sold in excess of 240 million licenses in the first year since General Availability, and the platform’s momentum continues to be extremely strong.
Microsoft is currently putting the finishing touches on the first major upgrade for Windows 7. Service Pack 1 (SP1) is expected to drop in the first quarter of 2011.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) Build 7601.17105.100929-1730 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) Build 7601.17105.100929-1730 are available for download here.
