News
Windows 7 Gaining on XP for Top Market Share OS
Microsoft's Windows 7 finished February less than 8 percentage points behind Windows XP in worldwide market share, according to Net Applications.
While Windows XP still claims the top OS spot, it dropped 1.80 percent for the month to finish at 45.39 percent. The aging Microsoft OS was not able to build on its success in January where it saw its share rise for the first time in over two years.
Microsoft's Windows 7 continues to close the gap on XP, as it gained 1.72 percent in the previous month to finish at 38.12 percent of the overall OS market. If this trend continues, look for Windows 7 to overtake XP sometime early this summer.
Windows Vista's third-place position held through February, even though its share dropped 0.12 percent to finish at 8.10 percent. It should retain this position for the near future, as Apples Mac OS X 10.6, which sits at fourth place, is trailing Vista by 5.5 points.
Although only available as a Developer Preview until recently, Microsoft's early preview of Windows 8 claimed .02 percent of the worldwide market.
Look for this number to see a significant bump by the end of March due to the release of the more feature-rich test version of Windows 8, called the Consumer Preview, on Wednesday.
Microsoft announced the Consumer Preview experienced significant downloads in its first 24 hours, saying "One day later...one million downloads of the consumer preview," in a message posted on the Building Windows 8 Twitter account.
Microsoft's overall market share for its Windows brand finished the month at 91.92 percent.
| OS |
February 2012 Market Share |
Market Share % Change |
| Windows XP |
45.39%
|
-1.80
|
| Windows 7 |
38.12%
|
+1.70
|
| Windows Vista |
8.10%
|
-0.12
|
| Mac OS X 10.6 |
3.00%
|
+0.05
|
| Mac OS X 10.7 |
2.69%
|
+0.51
|
| Other |
2.70%
|
-0.36
|
Figures courtesy of Net Applications