News
Windows 10 Market Share Hits 5 Percent
- By Scott Bekker
- 09/01/2015
According to two market share tracking organization, Windows 10 has gained strong traction in its first month of release and now accounts for 5 percent of the global desktop market.
Released on July 29, Windows 10 was a free upgrade for many Windows 7 and Windows 8 users and Microsoft has been rolling the download out in controlled waves to users who requested it in the subsequent weeks.
Both StatCounter and Net Applications published usage share data for all of August on Tuesday morning. StatCounter put Windows 10's worldwide share at 4.88 percent. Net Applications had Windows 10's global share at 5.21 percent.
The one-month figures compare favorably to previous releases, which is not surprising given that most users had to pay when upgrading to Windows 7 or Windows 8.
"Windows 10 came out of the traps much faster than Windows 8 and also exceeded the launch of Windows 7," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO of StatCounter, in a statement Tuesday morning.
Windows 8 had 1 percent share after its first month on the market, while Windows 7 had 4.05 percent, according to StatCounter. The new operating system is doing better in the United States and much better in the United Kingdom than previous releases, according to StatCounter. U.S. share is 5.64 percent and U.K. share is a whopping 8.45 percent. (See table for Windows 8 and Windows 7 comparisons.)
| XXX |
Windows 10 |
Windows 8 |
Windows 7 |
| Worldwide |
4.88% |
1% |
4.05% |
| U.S. |
5.64% |
1.16% |
4.3% |
| U.K. |
8.45% |
1.17% |
4.34% |
Internet usage share for first calendar month since launch. Source: StatCounter
|
Net Applications data shows the field still dominated by Windows 7 at nearly 58 percent share. Windows 8/8.1 is next at 15 percent, followed by the out-of-support Windows XP at 12 percent. Windows 10 and Mac OS X 10.10 are neck-and-neck at 5.21 percent and 4.76 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, StatCounter also looked at the new Edge browser in Windows 10 and concluded that most people aren't using it and it's gotten less popular over time. Edge usage went from 20 percent of Windows 10 users on July 30 to 14 percent on Aug. 31.
Last week, Microsoft said Windows 10 was running on 75 million devices. The company's stated goal is to get Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by its fiscal year 2018.
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.