14 DAY TRIAL // Data provided by research firm StatCounter has revealed that Windows 7 dropped below the 40 percent market share for the first time because of the impressive growth that Windows 10 is experiencing these days, but figures collected by Net Applications claim otherwise.
In this case, Windows 7 continues to be the leading desktop operating system with a share of 47.25 percent, followed indeed by Windows 10 with 22.99 percent.
Both companies put Windows 7 and Windows 10 on the first two spots in this exact order, so this is most likely true, but the market share of each of them is pretty different, and Net Applications claims there’s a bigger difference between the two.
And what’s more, not only does Windows 7 remain the leading choice for desktop users, but it’s also back to growth following the end of free upgrades offered following the launch of Windows 10. Microsoft allowed Windows 7 and 8.1 users the chance to upgrade to Windows 10 without spending a single cent if the switch was performed in the first year after launch, but this promo ended on July 29, so August was the first month without free upgrades.
Windows 10’s growing, but Windows 7 does it too
As a result, Windows 7 is back to growth, and it seems to be getting closer to the 50 percent market share milestone once again, although it remains to be seen if it has what it takes to surpass this figure once again. Last month, however, Windows 7 increased from 47.01 percent to 47.25 percent, despite the fact that Windows 10 recorded a growth as well.
Microsoft’s latest operating system improved its share from 21.13 percent to 22.99 percent, and while it continues growing, it’ll certainly be a challenge to maintain the same adoption rate without the free upgrades.
The software giant, on the other hand, expects things to improve substantially in the coming months as well, especially because enterprises are likely to complete the pilot phase of Windows 10 and actually start deploying the new OS.
Time will tell if Windows 10 can become the world’s leading desktop OS, but if fails in this mission, Microsoft is very likely to experience another Windows XP moment in 2020, when support for Windows 7 comes to an end.