14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently completed the rollout of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, but by the looks of things, this hasn’t helped the new operating system increase its share.
Instead, Windows 10 declined during the month of February, according to data provided by NetMarketShare, going down from 34.29% to 34.06%.
While the drop isn’t substantial, it actually raises questions as to how fast Windows 10 can overtake Windows 7, which is projected to reach end of support in January 2020.
In its turn, Windows 7 has also lost market share points in February, as it’s down to 41.61% from 42.39% in January. In this case, however, the drop makes more sense, especially because Windows 7 was launched in 2009, and the transition to newer operating system is something to be expected, especially with the approaching end of support in 2020.
On the other hand, Apple’s macOS managed to increase its market share last month, growing from 4.46% to 4.96%.
Windows versus other desktop platforms
Overall, Windows is now running on 87.66% of PCs, one of the lowest market shares in the last years for Microsoft’s operating system, and down from 87.79% in the previous month. macOS has a market share of 9.89% for February.
Microsoft’s Windows has gradually declined since early 2017. In January 2017, Windows was running on 89.03% of the desktop systems worldwide, and since then, it lost market share points nearly every single month before eventually reaching 87.66% in February 2018.
While this might seem a reason that Microsoft should be really worried about, the difference between Windows and the other desktop platforms still remains huge, and with the software giant’s investments in its operating system, it’s hard to believe Apple or anyone else can close the gap.
The next Windows 10 version is Redstone 4 and it is projected to launch as soon as next month, and another market share increase is likely for both Windows in general and Windows 10 in particular.
