14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 7 continues to be the leading choice on the desktop for Windows users, new data provided by StatCounter indicates, as adoption of Microsoft’s Windows 10 is slowing down.
Figures provided for the month of March indicate that Windows 7 remained the top choice with a market share of 47.03 percent, while Windows 10 was the runner-up with 34.28 percent. Windows 8.1 was third with 9.63 percent, while Windows XP dropped to 5.46 percent.
This means that Windows 7 is running on nearly 1 in 2 desktop computers in the world, despite Microsoft’s aggressive push for Windows 10, especially in the first 12 months after the July 2015 launch.
With end of support planned for January 2020, Windows 7 is indeed losing market share points, but it does it at a rather slow pace. Last month, for instance, it dropped from 47.17 percent to 47.03 percent, while Windows 10 improved only slightly from 33.8 percent to 34.28 percent.
The Windows 7 problem
Windows 7 having such a big share means trouble for Microsoft, as this operating system is reaching end of support in less than 3 years and users running it don’t seem to be willing to upgrade to Windows 10 just yet.
Windows 7 actually resisted the Windows 10 free upgrade promo and remains close to the 50 percent threshold despite Microsoft pushing the latest operating system so aggressively, and there’s a good chance many users would stick with it in the coming years as well.
As a result, Windows 7 is very likely to become the second Windows XP when it comes to operating systems that users refuse to abandon despite end of support, and Microsoft can’t be pleased with this thing, especially because it means users could be exposed to attacks targeting unpatched vulnerabilities.
More updates for Windows 10 will land in the coming years, though, so Windows 7’s market share will undoubtedly drop at a faster pace in the near future.