14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 has dethroned Windows XP as the top operating system used in Europe, and is extremely close to grabbing the no.1 spot worldwide as well, according to StatCounter.
No less than 38.67% of the European users coming to the websites tracked by the Internet metrics company were running Windows 7, as of August 2011.
The growth trend continues for Windows Vista’s successor, even as Microsoft is gearing up to unveil the first deep insight into Windows 8, the next major iteration of Windows.
Some 37.68% of users in Europe were leveraging Windows 7 in July 2011, the first month in which Windows XP’s downward trajectory took it to the number 2 position on the OS market.
StatCounter credited XP with a share of 37.04% in July 2011, and now with just 36.12% among European users. Windows Vista accounts for a 15.91% usage share across Europe.
Worldwide however, the order of the top three operating systems is XP, Windows 7 and Vista. With a usage share of just 11.33%, Vista is in third place, with Windows 7 being runner up, leveraged by 37.04% of users as of August 2011.
XP’s dominance may very well be eroding rapidly, but the decade-old operating system continues to be the most used platform worldwide with a share of 42.95%.
Even though Microsoft has opened more and more on Windows 8, details about the next version of Windows do not seem to have impacted Windows 7’s growth.
Approximately a month ago, Microsoft boasted about Windows 7’s strong momentum, revealing that the operating system had reached the 400 million sold licenses mark, and that it was continuing to sell quite fast.
In fact, according to the software giant, Windows 7 is selling no less than three times as fast as Windows XP.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM Build 7601.17514.101119-1850 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM are available for download here.
Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.