Data shows Windows 10 records minor share increase

Jul 1, 2019 05:39 GMT  ·  By

New data provided by NetMarketShare shows that while Windows 10 continues to be the leading choice for desktop computers across the world, it barely moved the needle on global market share numbers last month.

Windows 10 increased its share from 45.73% to 45.79%, despite the arrival of the May 2019 Update.

Microsoft started the rollout of Windows 10 May 2019 Update, or version 1903, in late May. Last month, the company made it available for all seekers on Windows Update, meaning all users are allowed to download the update with a manual check for updates.

Windows 7, whose support comes to an end in January 2020, dropped from 35.44% to 35.38%.

The 2009 Windows operating system will go dark on January 14, 2020, so Microsoft now recommends users to upgrade to Windows 10 in order to continue to receive updates. The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 7, however, happens at a rather slow pace, so right now, more than 3 in 10 PCs out there still run Windows 7.

Windows XP going dark

Windows 8.1, which is the third Windows version that still receives support, actually increased its share from 3.97% to 4.51%.

At the same time, macOS 10.14 declined from 5.34% to 5.31%.

The good news is that Windows XP, the operating system that no longer receives updates since April 2014, is going down at a faster pace and has now reached 1.81% share. Windows XP is mostly used on devices in various organizations and enterprises across the world because of compatibility reasons and the high costs of upgrades to newer Windows.

Linux, which has long been considered the main alternative to Windows, is now running on 1.55% of the desktop computers out there, according to the same source.

Below is a summary of the June 2019 market share figures:

Windows 10 Windows 7 macOS 10.14 Windows 8.1
May 2019 45.73%  35.44%  5.34% 3.97%
June 2019 45.79%  36.38%  5.31%  4.51%