14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10 are both generally available, but Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9 remain impressively popular these days.
While it’s way too early to talk about the overall number of Windows 8 users, statistics provided by Net Applications reveal that Windows 7 continues to increase its market share month by month.
Windows 7 is now the world’s number one operating system with a market share of 44.69 percent in October, followed by Windows XP with 40.66 percent.
Windows 8, the newly-released operating system bearing Microsoft’s badge, is way behind with 0.41 percent, but these figures are expected to grow significantly in the upcoming months, as more Windows users make the move to the new product.
No less than 4 million copies have already been sold in the first weekend, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said.
Internet Explorer 9 remains the number one browser on the web, even if Microsoft has already unveiled the 10th build of the in-house browser.
According to NetMarketShare, Internet Explorer holds a market share of 54 percent, while Firefox comes second with 20 percent. Google Chrome isn’t performing much better, as it recorded a market share of only 18.55 percent last month, down from 18.86 percent in September.
While such a big difference could sound impossible for many computer users out there, NetMarketShare claims that Microsoft finally convinced Windows 7 users to make the move to IE 9, hence the significant growth of this browser version.
Internet Explorer 9 on the Windows 7 platform reached 50 percent usage in the United States, while figures worldwide surpassed 40 percent.
Internet Explorer 10 is currently available on Windows 8 exclusively, but Microsoft plans to release a special build for Windows 7 users too.
A preview is expected to be released this month, before a final build of the app that’s very likely to be introduced in early 2013.