14 DAY TRIAL // While the whole world’s moving to Windows 10 (and more recently to Windows 10 Anniversary Update), China simply refuses to do that and sticks with old software, including 15-year-old operating systems that everyone, including Microsoft, is trying to get rid of.
Market share data provided to us by StatCounter shows that, in China, Windows 10 is only the third most used desktop operating system, still far behind Windows 7 and Windows XP.
Worldwide, on the other hand, Windows 10 has already become second in the charts and is very close to overtaking Windows 7, or it’s at least getting closer to it in some particular markets, but in China, things are completely different.
Right now, Windows 7 is China’s preferred desktop operating system with a share of 47.69 percent, followed by Windows XP with 22.83 percent (for what it’s worth, Windows XP was launched in 2001, so it’ll soon turn 15 while Windows 7 was released in 2009).
The Windows piracy
Windows 10 is only third with 14.16 percent while an “unknown” category is next with 6.71 percent - this could include Linux-based operating systems, as China is one of the countries that have been pushing for the adoption of such platforms in order to escape the Microsoft dominance.
Windows 8.1 is collapsing with 3.94 percent, followed by Mac OS X with 2.24 - although we bet these aren’t necessarily Apple devices, but PCs running Hackintosh.
Getting back to Windows 10, it’s very clear that Windows 7 and XP continue to be China’s top desktop platforms, and it’s not because of piracy. It’s not a secret that China is the land of piracy, and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that, at one point, 9 out of 10 Windows licenses in China were pirated, but in Windows 10 case, this isn’t the reason for poor adoption.
Cracked Windows 10 versions are already up for grabs if you know where to look, but the old hardware, which still runs Windows XP and 7 far better than Windows 10, is holding back adoption of the new OS in a market that’s still super important for Microsoft. For the moment, however, Microsoft can’t do much about it, so it’ll be interesting to see how Windows 10 evolves in the country.