14 DAY TRIAL // It’s no secret that Microsoft wants to move all its Windows XP users to a newer platform, but it seems like its efforts make no difference for the time being.
New figures released by Net Applications for the week of December 9 reveal that Windows XP’s decline has come to an end and, what’s more, its market share has even increased in the past 7 days.
Windows XP now has a share of 39.15 percent and remains the second most popular operating system on the market, after Windows 7 which holds a share of 45.83 percent.
The 11-year old Windows contraption had a share of 38.98 percent two weeks ago and everybody thought that it was just the beginning of a continuous decline that would help Microsoft move its users to Windows 7 or Windows 8.
But as far as Microsoft goes, support for Windows XP will end in April 2014, so those who will still use this platform will no longer get software updates and patches.
In the meantime, however, the company has updated one of its applications to work on Windows XP. Bing Desktop 1.1 now comes with support for a wide array of operating systems, including the recently-released Windows 8 and the 11-year old platform.
While Microsoft’s decision to bring XP support in an updated app is somewhat questionable, the company wants partners to help kill the operating system and thus support the adoption of the new Windows 8.
“There are over 200 million copies of XP out there. It's over 10 years old,” Long Tran, Microsoft's director of technology strategy solutions for SMB, said in November at Tech Data's TechSelect conference in Puerto Rico. “There is no lower hanging fruit than Windows XP [upgrades],” he added, emphasizing that moving users to newer platforms could help partners increase profits.