14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP, one of the most popular Windows versions ever but also Microsoft’s biggest headache right now, has dropped below 40 percent market share, as the Redmond-based technology company is still struggling to convince users to upgrade.
With Windows 8 already on the market, Microsoft’s real challenge is now to prove XP users that it’s really worth it to make the move to a newer operating system.
And as far as figures released by Net Applications are concerned, all these efforts are finally paying off.
Windows 7 remained the number one operating system in the world in November, with a market share of 44.71 percent, while Windows XP continued its decline to 39.82 percent.
This is the first time when Windows XP drops below 40 percent market share, but it isn’t at all surprising given the fact that Microsoft struggles so much to promote the new Windows 8.
The recently released Windows OS now has a market share of 1.09 percent, but figures are very likely to be increased in the next few months, as Windows 8 sales seem to have adopted an ascending trend.
According to Microsoft data, the company has managed to sell a total of 40 million copies of the new OS in just one month, but it’s yet unclear whether it actually met internal sales projections or not.
In the meantime, Microsoft continues to remind everyone that switching from Windows XP to a newer Windows iteration is critical, especially because this particular OS release has less than 500 days left to live. Microsoft will stop providing support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014.
“To summarize, we recommend Windows XP customers focus on an accelerated departure from Windows XP, with the goal to move to an environment with Windows 8 deployed side-by-side with Windows 7,” Microsoft said on several occasions.