After failing to save the PC market from its inevitable nosedive, Windows 8 is struggling to gain market share. It is still growing, but at a snail’s pace and the dominant Redmond flavoured operating system remains Windows 7.
New data from Net Applications has revealed that July was a pretty bad month for Windows 8, as it saw a miserable 0.3 percent gain.
Windows 8 ended the month with a share of 5.4 percent, while Windows 7 went up from 44.37 to 44.49 percent. This basically means that some people are still buying Windows 7 gear, or upgrading existing systems to Win 7. It is not good news, since Windows 8 was released last October.
In fact, Windows 8 overtook Vista just a few months ago and Vista still has a 4.24 percent share, although it is declining. Windows XP on the other hand just refuses to die. Its share actually went up from 37.17 percent to 37.19 percent last month. Clearly Redmond seeded XP with a few cockroach genes, but since it will discontinue support for the venerable OS in April next year, the share should plummet over the next few months.
Although Apple is getting a lot of attention, Windows remains the dominant platform worldwide, with a 91.51 percent share, up from 91.51. OS X and Linux were down 0.01 and 0.03 percent respectively.
Windows 8.1 and the imminent demise of XP should fuel more growth for Windows 8.x, but the gains will be limited. Windows 8 will end its first year on the market with a single-digit market share. Given the state of the PC market, this is hardly surprising.
