The demise of Windows XP continues around the world

Sep 25, 2014 20:41 GMT  ·  By

Windows XP is no longer receiving updates and security updates since April this year, but lots of users around the world are still running it on their PCs.

This isn’t the case of Australia though, where the demise of Windows XP advances at a really fast pace, with statistics showing that this particular OS is very close to reaching the current market share of Windows Vista.

Figures provided by market researcher StatCounter for the month of September indicate that Windows 7 continues to be the number one operating system in the country, but XP is losing ground very fast.

Windows 8 is doing very well right now, but despite the growing market share of Windows 8.1, it’s still unable to overtake Mac OS X in the country.

Windows 8 already powering more PCs than XP

According to the aforementioned stats, Windows 7 rules the OS market in Australia with a share of 49.54 percent, followed by Mac OS X with 22.32 percent.

These charts are a bit surprising, not only because Mac OS X holds such a big market share, but also because XP isn’t among the first desktop platforms in the country. Worldwide, Windows 7 still leads the market, but XP is second.

In Australia, however, the third place goes to Windows 8.1 with 11.63 percent, while Windows 8 comes next with 6.93 percent. Windows XP is only fifth in the charts with 4.74 percent, followed closely by Windows Vista with 3.17 percent.

Microsoft still struggling to kill Windows XP

Redmond isn’t talking too much about Windows XP these days, but its official websites still recommend users to upgrade as soon as possible, pointing to the security risks of staying on an unsupported platform.

“We’ve been supporting Windows XP for the past 12 years—that's longer than we've supported any other operating system in our history and already two years longer than the standard ten years of support we normally provide. It’s time for us to look ahead so we can create better products and services for you and all our customers,” one of these warnings reads.

And despite all of these, Windows XP continues to be one of the top operating systems not only in Australia, but also all over the world, so it will most likely take a few more years until it disappears completely.

Microsoft’s biggest hopes are on Windows 9, but it remains to be seen if the new OS has what it takes to convince XP users to upgrade.