New market share figures show that Windows 8.1 is gaining traction

Mar 3, 2014 07:28 GMT  ·  By

Windows 8.1 might not be the most popular operating system in the world, but at least it continues its growth, with a new set of market share figures revealing that in February 2014 it finally managed to overtake Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

Windows 8.1 was officially launched in October 2013 and the operating system has until now failed to excite, with only a few users actually deciding to give it a shot.

According to statistics provided by Net Applications for the month of February 2014, Windows 8.1 currently has a market share of 4.30 percent, which means that it’s now the fourth most popular operating system in the world.

Windows 7 continues to the number one OS version out there with a share of 47.31 percent, followed by the never-dying Windows XP that’s still powering 29.53 percent of desktop computers worldwide.

Windows 8, Microsoft’s modern operating system launched in October 2012, is now installed on 6.38 percent of computers out there, while Windows 8.1 now holds a market share of 4.30 percent.

Mac OS X 10.9 and Windows Vista come next with 4.30 and 3.48 percent, which means that Windows 8.1 has grown enough in the last couple of months to consolidate Microsoft’s dominance in the desktop OS market.

Windows 8.1 has increased its market share at a relatively slow pace until now since its debut in October 2013, but Microsoft still believes that it has much more potential to attract users running non-modern operating system.

Windows 8.1 ended 2013 with a market share of 3.60 percent, while in January 2014 the new OS version reached 3.94 percent before eventually going all the way up to 4.30 percent in February 2014.

Of course, Microsoft might not be really pleased with how things are going for Windows 8.1, but the company is still working to attract more users and increase its market share.

Windows 8.1 is set to receive an important update this spring that would boost consumer appeal for desktop users by bringing several changes supposed to make the platform more appropriate for PCs. For example, users will receive options to pin Metro apps to the taskbar, as well as power options and a search box placed right on the Start screen to ease the job of desktop computers.

Windows 8.1 Update 1 is expected to debut in April as a free download for all Windows 8.1 users via Windows Update, with the installation process to be performed automatically.