14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP no longer receives updates and security patches since April 2014, but for some people, this seems to be just another good reason for keeping it running on their systems.
China is one particular market where Windows XP continues to be one of the most popular desktop operating systems, despite the obvious security risks that increase every new day without patches.
Statistics provided by third-party research firm StatCounter provide us with a worrying look at how widely-adopted Windows XP continues to be in China, even though users are strongly recommended to switch to a newer OS version, such as Windows 7, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10, all of which are still supported.
And what’s even worse is that despite the fact that Windows 10 was available free of charge for Windows 7 and 8.1 users, and Microsoft was so aggressive in moving users to its latest OS, Windows XP continues to be super-popular. And StatCounter claims that XP has almost as many users as Windows 10.
Windows 7 still number one
Specifically, Windows 7 is leading the pack (no surprise here) with 49.36 percent share, followed by the Windows 10 - Windows XP duo with 18.52 percent and 18.36 percent, respectively.
Windows 8.1 is so far behind that it’s almost not even worth mentioning in these stats, as it’s powering only 3.35 percent of the desktop computers in the country. MacOS is very close with 3.16 percent, while Windows 8 is installed on only 1.02 percent of the PCs in China.
It goes without saying that convincing users to migrate to the latest version of Windows is more difficult in China than anywhere else, and with Windows 7 still powering nearly 1 in 2 PCs in the country, there’s no doubt that in 2020 the software giant will once experience a Windows XP moment.
There are voices who claim that old Windows remains particularly popular in China because of pirated versions, but at this point, it’s as easy to find a pirated copy of Windows 10 as it is for Windows XP. In other words, piracy can hardly be considered a reason for sticking with Windows XP, but rather outdated hardware that doesn’t meet the requirements of Windows 10.