14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 10, the operating system that Microsoft officially launched in mid-2015, became the number one desktop platform in 2020 after it managed to overtake its predecessor Windows 7.
Statistics provided by market analyst firm NetMarketShare provide a closer look at how Windows 10 performed last year, highlighting its growth throughout the year despite occasional small hiccups.
Windows 10 started the year with 40.90% market share before dropping to 40.30% the next month. It reached a market share of 54.30% in November and ended 2020 with a personal record of 54.62%.
Windows 10 to continue growing
Windows 7, on the other hand, lost market share throughout the year, obviously because of the approaching end of support set for January 14. Windows 7 was running on 37.19% of the devices worldwide 12 months ago and then dropped gradually to a market share of 26.64% in December. With less than two weeks left until the end-of-life is reached, the market share of Windows 7 is very likely to continue going down, albeit not all devices will be upgraded before this milestone is reached.
Needless to say, the rest of the operating systems are far behind and pose no threat to the dominance of Windows 10. For example, Windows 8.1 is running on just 3.63% of the systems worldwide, while macOS 10.14 has a market share of 3.50%.
Windows 10 will undoubtedly continue growing throughout the year, not only because it’s the newest version of Windows, but also following the demise of Windows 7. Many upgrades are expected to choose Windows 7, especially in the enterprise where Microsoft is pushing hard for users to embrace Windows 10.
Microsoft will also release two feature updates for Windows 10 this year, the first of which has already been finalized and is expected to become available for the first wave of production devices in April or May.