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Windows XP Market Share Increases in January

It what looks to be an anomaly in the steady decline of Windows XP, the Microsoft OS version increased its market share by 0.67 percent in the month of January, according to market analysis firm Net Applications.

Windows XP finished the month with 47.19 percent of the worldwide market share, and continues to have a sizable lead as the top-used OS. Coming in second was Microsoft's newest OS, Windows 7, which saw a slight dip in January's numbers to finish with a 36.40 percent share.

While the slight increase for the 10-year-old OS isn't an argument for a new resurgence, it does point to the fact that many are still choosing XP, even though the support for the OS by Microsoft will end on April 14, 2014.

And this end of support is something that Microsoft has been continuously reminding customers of.

In a Microsoft Springboard Series blog posting from Jan. 28, Stephen L. Rose, social media manager for Microsoft, wrote that there was only 800 days left for Windows XP support.  He then made his case for migration away from XP by stating "It takes 18-24 months to plan for and deploy a new operating system."

Microsoft has also been suggesting that enterprises go ahead and adopt Windows 7 instead of waiting for Windows 8, rumored for release by the end of 2012.

Concerning Microsoft's upcoming OS, Windows 8 had a share of .02 percent for January. While the full retail version is not yet available, Windows 8 currently has a feature-light "developer preview" version out. And a beta release is expected by the end of February.

Microsoft still commands a massive lead with its Windows brand over rival Oses with 92.05 percent of the market share.

 

OS January 2012 Market Share Market Share % Change
Windows XP

47.19%

+0.67
Windows 7

36.40%

-0.59
Windows Vista

8.22%

-0.22
Mac OS X 10.6

2.95%

-0.10
Mac OS X 10.7

2.18%

+0.16
Other

3.06%

+0.08

Figures courtesy of Net Applications

About the Author

Chris Paoli is the associate Web editor for 1105 Enterprise Computing Group's Web sites, including Redmondmag.com, RCPmag.com, ADTmag.com and VirtualizationReview.com.

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Reader Comments:

Mon, Aug 6, 2012 ziippy

This article is half a year old, but ill drop a line The whole PC market its-self is shrinking. And it its not win8 people will be buying its going to be ios and android. People that been in the game awhile know how far we have come.Most people walk around with a $500 Smart Phone Infinitely more power but with buggy software and god only knows hardware. As today it seems you put in as much wiz bang as you ca and fuk stability ,someone else will fined the holes. winXp was simple sp3 was good ,the community ,people and time have stamped into want it is a good os .Is perfect no but it works, and thats on any hardware btw. Now if you could give me a smartphone that does that.

Tue, Feb 14, 2012 RK

Enable XP mode in Home basic & premium version of Windows 7. This may increase the adoption of Windows 7

Sun, Feb 5, 2012 VA

For some applications, XP mode is not good enough; we are doing full downgrades -- with the assistance of certain vendors that provide XP drivers for their new i7 systems. During the recession many ISVs could not afford to update; by the end of this year though, many more applications will be completely compatible; and some will even be OS independent.

Sun, Feb 5, 2012 Patrick Weisser Seattle

If I were the copyright holder of a product in such high demand by corporations and consumers alike, I would certainly find a way to make it secure, supportable, and profitable without changing the essence of what it is that makes it so beloved by so many. There's certainly room for more than just one type of user experience in the vast install base of Windows. And after all, happy customers are loyal customers. Microsoft risks marginalizing the Windows brand by forcing upon the world a single vision of how people should interact with Windows-based computing devices.

Sat, Feb 4, 2012 Anonymous

It's because of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_7 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_features_removed_in_Windows_Vista . Microsoft's strategy is really simple. Reset, redesign, resell.

Sat, Feb 4, 2012

Not a surprise, really, as dealers are still selling netbooks with XP Pro as OS, despite its now being 2012 (!).

Fri, Feb 3, 2012

I dont care if XP support will end in 2014. My 8 systems work fine, and all have XP. I tried putting 7 on one of them as an experiment and I did not like it. Ive been using XP since 2002!!!!! I hope more people downgrade from 7 to xp or from vista to xp or from 2000 to xp so we can stick it to microsoft and make them say, hey MAKE IT COMPATIBLE WITH THE WINDOWS UPDATE SITE! MAKE IE9 COMPATIBLE WITH XP NOW!!! (IE9 is crap btw, your better off with IE8 or IE7). NOT LOTS OF PEOPLE HAVE MONEY RIGHT NOW IN THIS ECONOMY TO UPGRADE! Ever look at ebay, how 90% of the laptops on there are sold with XP? People want something fast and cheap, and on a budget. I predict windows 8 will be a fail, it wont pass 10% market share. XP isnt coming down that easy, it will maybe require even windows 9 or 10 to completely knock it down. I think microsoft isnt gonna end support in 2014 either. Too many people are using XP. Their windows 7 ads are failing. Making XP SP1a and older incompatible with windows update site was also a fail. Like I say, If it works fine, leave it alone. XP forever.

Fri, Feb 3, 2012 sj

Windows 7 Pro/Ult/Ent come with a "free" copy of XP, XP Mode. I'd see this as a more likely cause than "choosing" XP. I know there was a big uptick in posts in the TechNet forum for WVPC and XPMode.

Fri, Feb 3, 2012 Rusty NC

I bought a new Lenovo laptop for Christmas, and it naturally came with Windows 7 installed. I had used Windows 7 at work, so I am quite familiar with its pros and cons. But there were several key applications that I use regularly that I could not, even with great effort, get to run on Windows 7. That made the decision to wipe Windows 7 and install XP very easy to make. There is nothing that I need to do that XP does not do very well indeed, so I will stick with it for the forseable future.

Fri, Feb 3, 2012 John Eugene, OR

I have never heard how the Linux market share was 'deduced'. The problem with the Windows share is every machine I purchase has Windows on it, I re-partition and/or re-format and put Linux on the machine. My 1 download of Linux gets on 10-15 machines, per version of Linux.

Fri, Feb 3, 2012 Marc Wagner Bloomington, IN

Perhaps this ever-so-slight an increase is attributabe to those who have been running Windows 98/98se/Me and who were "gifted" (or otherwise acuired) and old copy of XP. I find it amusing that Linuxmarket share was so small that it got clumped in with Mac OS X 10.5 and below - and that Mac OS X, as a whole, has once again dropped back to (or below) 8.19% from a high of almost 10% shortly after Windows Vista shipped!

Fri, Feb 3, 2012 Dave

XP has been just fine for all my needs and I don't see any reason for going through all the hassles of switching to another OS.

Fri, Feb 3, 2012 Pradip Sagdeo

Why would anyone want to break something that does not need fixing?! XP will be supported for a little over two years. Getting Windows 7 is not just swapping the OS. It is also swapping most of the hardware for desktop and who knows how much for the network. I will be tempted to wait until April 2014 if I can get by with with my systems. And so will millions of others in this economy. Thanks.

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