14 DAY TRIAL // We all know that Windows 7 is currently the top operating system in the world, as it's installed on more than 45 percent of computers on the planet, but overall, it still needs to improve its user base to reach the one of Windows XP four years ago.
A chart provided by Statista and analyzing the market share held by the leading operating systems in the United States from January 2009 to September 2013 reveals some pretty surprising figures.
Windows XP's record market share was reached in January 2009 when it was running on 68.55 percent, which is pretty impressive for an operating system that was fighting with several non-Windows platforms, including Mac OS X and Linux.
This means that Windows XP helped Microsoft dominate the OS market all by itself, despite the launch of Windows Vista (which by the way had a market share of approximately 5 percent).
Since January 2009, Windows XP adopted a declining trend, pretty much because it became an old platform and the arrival of Windows 7, one of the most successful products in Microsoft's history, convinced users to update.
The switch of places happened in May 2011 when Windows 7 took over the leading position with a 32.9 percent market share, while Windows XP dropped to 30.68 percent, according to the same figures provided by Statista.
It's interesting to note though that Windows 7's record market share was achieved in May this year, when 51.91 percent of the users worldwide still owning a desktop were running this particular OS version.
This means that Windows 7 still has a long way to go to break Windows XP's record, but let's not forget that the market trend has changed a lot in the last couple of years. Users are now migrating to mobile platforms such as iOS, Android, and Windows RT/Phone, so desktop OSes have slowly lost some users in the last couple of years.