Windows 7 continues to gain market share as Windows XP plummets NORMAL SERVICE HAS RESUMED after the latest operating system market share figures show a drop for Windows XP and rises for Windows 7 and Windows 8. The latest figures from Net Applications' Netmarketshare are the first since confusion over a sudden drop in stats was explained by a decision to remove a number of Chinese website hits from the statistics which had "audiences heavily skewed towards Windows XP". Calculation of the figures is based on the number of visitors to websites registered by the company, but it was considered that Chinese sites, owing to their content and the Great Firewall, were irrelevant to a global audience. The result was a sudden drop in marketshare for XP that was, in fact, caused by missed calculation, rather than miscalculation. While the figures stand, they will be a little jarring until we all get used to the new trends. Of course, the figures have made very little difference to the overall percentages. Windows 7 continues to gain ground at 53.71 percent (+0.66) and Windows XP drops to 13.57 (-3.61). It seems that XP figures will drop more quickly now, as they are no longer being held artificially high by the Chinese market where newer versions of Windows are frowned on. Both versions of Windows 8 see rises. Windows 8.1 goes to 12.1 (+1.18) while the theoretically defunct original goes up slightly to 6.55 (+0.67). This is cold comfort for Microsoft, which will have hoped that Windows 8 would be challenging Windows 7 by now, but any kind of upward trajectory has got to be an improvement as many will now be waiting for the arrival of Windows 10. Windows NT, another beneficiary of the change in bean counting, has seen a bunny hop up to 2.81 (+1.64). We're awaiting confirmation from Net Applications, but suspect that a big chunk of this is the Windows 10 Technical Preview. The rest of the top 10 holds few real shocks. OS X 10 is gnashing at the heels of its nearest predecessor at 2.66 (+1.48), while 9 holds steady at 2.81 (-1.64). Earlier versions of OS X have also reduced slightly with OS X 5-8 clocking 1.8 (-0.36) Finally, Linux drops slightly to 1.25 (-0.16), but with margins for error being what they are, we don't really expect a change of less than half a percent to be significant. It may well bounce back next month. ยต http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...-gaining-market-share-but-windows-xp-plummets ============================================================================= Windows 7 up as Windows XP slides, Chrome growth stops in November READ MORE HERE http://arstechnica.com/information-...rstechnica/index+(Ars+Technica+-+All+content)
And how old is XP.. seeing as you can't buy it installed on a new system, and haven't for nearly a decade, it's no surprise it's (irrelevant) "market share" has fallen as old hardware gets retired or packs up. Some people like me ONLY use it at all because the stupid makers of wireless broadband dongles ONLY support windoze or apple garbage.. so I run it on a heap just to do internetz stuffs.. and it's STILL horrid and limited "mitherware" IMHO
