Windows 10’s market share growing on the Old Continent

Feb 6, 2017 13:28 GMT  ·  By

After overtaking Windows 7 in the United States, Windows 10 is very close to becoming number 1 in Europe as well, with statistics showing that this could happen as soon as this month.

StatCounter data for the month of January indicates that Windows 10 is super-close to taking over the leading position in the desktop OS market, as Windows 7 itself is losing ground these days.

Specifically, Windows 7 continues to be number one with 34.93 percent, but Windows 10 is very close behind with 32.97 percent. This means that Windows 10 only needs to grow some 2 percent this month to become the number one desktop OS in Europe (or even less if Windows 7 itself is losing points too).

All the other operating systems are far behind, with OS X currently third with 12.17 percent, followed by Windows 8.1 with 7.93 percent and Windows XP with 4.6 percent.

The Windows 10 push

Partially responsible for the growth recorded by Windows 10 is Microsoft’s free upgrade offer that was available in the first 12 months after the launch of the operating system. Until July 2016, Windows 7 and 8.1 users were allowed to upgrade to Windows 10 completely free of charge.

Right now, however, Windows 10 is said to be growing at a slower pace, especially because most consumers are supposed to be using the OS already. But at the same time, Microsoft is betting big on enterprises, which are also expected to upgrade to Windows 10 after completing the testing phase of the operating system.

Without a doubt, it’s all just a matter of time until Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7 in the majority of markets, but even so, it’s still a big challenge for Microsoft to convince Windows 7 users to upgrade before this OS reaches end of support in January 2020.

There’s a good chance that Microsoft will experience another Windows XP moment when users refuse to upgrade despite the obvious security risks.