Windows 7 Will Overtake Vista to Become No.2 OS after XP

After just nine months since it was released to the general public, Windows 7 will overtake its predecessor in terms of market share. This despite the fact that Windows Vista has been available for purchase for more than three years now. Taking into consideration the growth rate of the latest Windows client, Vista’s days as the no.2 operating system worldwide are numbered. In fact, my prediction is that by the end of July 2010, Windows 7 will have more users than Vista, and will be runner up to the nearly-decade old Windows XP.

Internet metrics company Net Applications notes that Windows 7 has jumped all the way to 13.70% of the operating system market worldwide in June 2010, from 12.68% in May. In the same period of time, Windows Vista’s share was eroded to just 14.68% from 15.25%, with the platform now sliding lower and lower each month.

Just by looking at the figures provided by Net Applications, and it’s clear that July 2010 will be the month worth marking in your calendars. The Redmond company’s latest Windows release has been growing constantly since launch, jumping by at least 1% from one month to another. If this trend continues, Windows 7 is bound to have at least 14.70% at the end of July.

Meanwhile, Vista’s market share has been continuously decreasing, and it’s separated by less than 1% from Windows 7. In this context, provided that Windows will keep up its strong momentum, Vista will renounce the no.2 spot in the worldwide OS race by August 2010.

Windows XP is pack leader, and with quite an advantage. Despite also having its market share continuously eroded, XP is only down to 62.43% this month from 62.55% in May. It will still be a while, by any standards, until Windows 7 will be able to overtake XP.

At the end of June 2010, Microsoft confirmed once again that the fastest selling operating system in history is still selling extremely fast. No less than seven copies of Windows 7 are purchased each second, with the software giant touting in excess of 150 million copies already sold.

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