Stats show Windows 7 dominated the past year

Jan 4, 2017 07:06 GMT  ·  By

​Microsoft has been pushing very hard (and sometimes very aggressively) for users to move to Windows 10 and 2016 was quite a controversial year in this regard, with many people saying that the company went a little too far in its attempt to boost adoption of its latest operating system.

And while Microsoft itself also admitted that it was wrong to become so pushy on Windows 10 upgrades, statistics show that, despite all this, it’s still Windows 7 the desktop operating system that was number one last year.

NetMarketShare data for 2016 shows that Windows 7 clearly dominated the year despite Microsoft’s push for Windows 10, despite the release of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, and despite the so many new devices launched with Windows 10.

Windows 7 clearly survived the Windows 10 offensive, and according to this data, it achieved a market share in 2016 of no less than 49.10 percent, which means that it was running on 1 in 2 PCs across the world. Windows 7 has long powered 50 percent of the world’s PCs, but everyone expected it to collapse following the release of Windows 10.

Small impact following free Windows 10 upgrades

Windows 7’s performance throughout the year was full of ups and downs, but the lowest market share it dropped to was 47.01 percent in July, so it didn’t actually collapse as so many people projected to happen. The biggest market share was in February when it was at 52.34 percent.

Without a doubt, Windows 10 did have an impact on Windows 7’s market share, but its effects were pretty limited. Windows 10 benefitted from the huge adoption boost generated by the free upgrade, but as this promo ended, Windows 7 also started recovering.

For example, in July 2016 when Microsoft ended the free upgrade campaign for Windows 10, Windows 7 was running on 47.01 percent of desktop computers across the world, but next month it started increasing by achieving 47.25 percent. The biggest market share post-free Windows 10 upgrades was recorded in October - 48.38 percent.

Support for Windows 7 comes to an end in January 2020, and it goes without saying that Microsoft will have a super-difficult job convincing users to upgrade. The next few OS upgrades, such as the Creators Update and the Redstone 3, will be essential for Microsoft’s Windows 10 strategy, as they have the impossible mission of moving users from Windows 7 to the latest OS.

Market share performance posted by Windows 7 last year
Market share performance posted by Windows 7 last year

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Desktop OS market share in 2016
Market share performance posted by Windows 7 last year
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