Windows 8 grows its market share courtesy of Consumer Preview

Apr 2, 2012 14:43 GMT  ·  By

Although you might find the headline intriguing, you should know that things are indeed this way: Windows X gained ground in March when compared to February.

The old operating system from Microsoft remains the leading platform in user’s preferences, with a 46.86 percent market share of the OS market, up from the 45.39 percent it accounted for last month, the latest data from Net Applications shows.

Ever since Windows 7 arrived on shelves, Windows XP has been losing market share to it, yet it appears that it still has the power to remain on top of the market.

Microsoft has been focused on pushing Windows 7 to the front for the past few years, and is expected to continue doing so until Windows 8 arrives on devices.

However, it appears that enterprises are not yet ready to move to the newer platform, even if Microsoft is determined to end the support for Windows XP in 2014.

Windows 7 accounted for 38.12 percent of the operating system market in February, and went down to 37.54 percent in March.

Windows Vista lost share as well, now accounting for 7.65 percent of the market, while Windows 8 gained ground at 0.11 percent share.

In February, Windows 8 enjoyed only 0.03 percent market share, yet the release of the Consumer Preview version on February 29th helped it grow.

Users all around the world have been interested in what the new flavor of Windows 8 (essentially the beta flavor) had to offer them from day one, and Microsoft reported at the time over 1 million downloads of the OS version on only 24 hours.

Microsoft is expected to launch the final flavor of Windows 8 in October, three years after releasing Windows 7 to the public. Until then, the company hopes that Windows XP will lose the top spot as the most popular OS in the world.

Photo Gallery (2 Images)

Windows XP actually grows in March 2012
Windows XP actually grows in March 2012
Open gallery