14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10 is available as a free upgrade to users on Windows 7 and 8.1, and there's no doubt that Microsoft expects the new OS to kill off its predecessors, as everyone would take advantage of this offer and install the new software.
In the first month after its debut, Windows 10 indeed convinced some users to upgrade, but for the moment, the impact it has on the market share of both Windows 7 and 8.1 is quite minimal, with statistics showing that somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of the users on these two platforms installed the new one.
A few hours ago, we highlighted August 2015 market share data provided by StatCounter, which shows that Windows 10 is still well behind Windows 7, and now NetApplications says pretty much the same thing, but with an in-depth look at how the previous OS releases performed last month.
Windows 7, the king
First and foremost, Windows 7 is the number one operating system on the desktop with 57.67 percent, while Windows XP is the runner-up with 12.14 percent. Windows 8.1 is third with 11.39 percent, followed by Windows 10 with 5.21 percent.
While Windows 10's growth is decent, given the fact that we're only talking about 30 days on the market, it's important to note that Windows 7's market share declined last month because of the arrival of the new OS.
Windows 7 was installed on no less than 60.73 percent in July, so it lost more than 3 percent in just one month. As for Windows 8.1, it dropped from 13.11 percent to 11.39 percent last month, so again, users jumped ship and installed Windows 10.
That's good news for Microsoft, there's no doubt about it, but in order to kill of Windows 7 completely, Microsoft needs a lot more than that. Redmond plans on bringing Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by 2017, so upgrading everyone eligible to the new OS is the one thing that it has to do.
