14 DAY TRIAL // Between August and September 2011, Windows 7’s usage share growth started accelerating. Whereas the share of the operating system would increase by around one percentage point from one month to the next, it jumped from 30.60% in August to no less than 32.42% at the end of September.
And it appears that this was not an isolated incident. While Windows XP continues to fade, Windows 7 is gaining ground.
Not only this, but it appears that Windows 7 adoption is accelerating, at least according to statistics from NetMarketshare.
The platform’s usage share increased considerably in the past month, from 32.42% in September to 34.62% at the end of October 2011.
Unsurprisingly, Windows 7’s uptake and usage explosion comes at the detriment of Windows XP. After its share dropped from 52.46% to 50.50% between August and September, it dipped once again to just 48.03% at the end of October.
The software giant hasn’t said anything new about Windows 7’s uptake after it revealed that the volume of sold licenses of the OS was on track to reaching 450 million, in mid-September 2011 at BUILD.
Overall, Windows’ share continued to decrease, and is now at just 91.86% down from 92.44% in September. Mac OS X usage increased in the last month, reaching 6.94%, up from just 6.45%. Linux’s share also jumped slightly, from 1.11% to 1.19%.
Over a month and a half ago, the Redmond company launched the first public pre-Beta of Windows 8, Windows 7’s successor.
There’s still quite a bit of work to be done on Windows 8, and Microsoft urged customers not to wait, but to upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 as soon as possible.
I don’t think that the company’s advice actually resonated with users worldwide, but with XP turning 10, more and more people are dumping the decade-old OS and making the jump to Windows 7.
Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.
