14 DAY TRIAL // Many believe that Windows is going down these days due to what they call Windows 8’s failure to meet expectations and the company’s arrogance regarding users’ complaints, but in reality, the operating system is doing really well as compared to its rivals.
The living proof comes from Net Applications, a market researcher that keeps an eye on operating system market share and reports desktop usage on every version currently on the market.
August 2014 data shows that Windows is currently leading the desktop OS market with no less than 91.58 percent, while Mac OS X is really far behind with 6.74 percent. Linux is third in these charts with a share of 1.67 percent.
There’s no doubt that Windows is here to stay despite what people think and no matter whether Windows 8 has indeed failed or not to meet expectation. Adoption of Windows 8 is indeed performing below expectations, and in two years it has barely reached a 6.28 percent market share, while Windows 8.1 is currently at 7.09 percent.
Combined, Microsoft’s modern operating system becomes the third top individual OS version in the charts, after Windows 7, which obviously remains number one with 51.21 percent, and Windows XP with 23.89 percent.
Windows, however, continues to boost its overall market share, and the future is looking good for Microsoft, especially as new improvements and OS versions are in the pipeline.
This month, for example, Microsoft is scheduled to unveil the very first public beta of Windows 9, while in early 2015 the operating system should reach RTM and then become available for everyone. That’s clearly a very good thing for Windows’ market share on the desktop, especially because sources close to the matter also reveal that Microsoft is working to make the upcoming version more appropriate for use with a mouse and keyboard.
Both Mac OS X and Linux have grown lately, but the latter is mostly gaining users following the transition from Windows XP. Few consumers are actually moving to Linux seeking better productivity, even though there’s no doubt that the open-source platform remains a top choice as far as servers are concerned.
The bottom line, however, is that Windows is hard to kill, and although it’s indeed losing ground in the mobile market, where Microsoft is anyway investing millions of dollars to boost adoption in the long term, it has absolutely no rival in the desktop business where it still owns more than 90 percent of the market.