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Windows 7 takes 10% market share, three months after its release

Tom Warren
02 February 2010 - 18:53
46 Comments
Liked this (3)

In its three months since general availability, Microsoft's Windows 7 accounts for 1 in 10 PCs accessing the Internet today according to figures from Net Applications.

In comparison Windows Vista averages at around 20% market share and Windows XP between 60-70%. According to CNET a month after Windows 7's launch it had reached 4% market share, a level that took Windows Vista seven months to achieve.

Microsoft reported a record quarter for Windows units in Q2 2010. Last week, Microsoft officials confirmed they had sold more than 60 million Windows 7 licenses in the second quarter making it the fastest selling operating system in history. Microsoft released Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. The operating system has received praise from consumers, businesses and the media. In November 2009, Windows 7 managed to surpass Apple's Snow Leopard market share in just two weeks.

Screenshots of a Windows 7 post RTM build have shown up on the web this week fueling speculation that Microsoft is compiling early Windows 8 builds. The successor to Windows 7 will likely be available in 2011 as an ex-Microsoft worker penned July 2011 as the RTM date for Windows 8 last week.

Microsoft is currently readying its first Service Pack for Windows 7. A beta version is expected in June with a public release in September this year.

Image Credit: Net Applications

Comments (46)

  1. thealexweb - 02 February 2010 - 18:54

    That's pretty quick growth

    Edit (thealexweb, 02 February 2010 - 18:55):

  2. M_Lyons10 - 03 February 2010 - 04:51

    thealexweb said,
    That's pretty quick growth

    Indeed. I guess that's what happens when you release a solid OS like this. I'm glad to see people adopting Windows 7. It's a great OS...

  3. artfuldodga - 02 February 2010 - 18:58

    damn, thats even better than i'd expected, see what happens when you try Microsoft? lets hope they keep that up

    Edit (artfuldodga, 02 February 2010 - 18:59):

  4. Singh400 - 02 February 2010 - 19:03

    Good! Here is to 10% more! (Y)

  5. DaveGreen - 02 February 2010 - 19:04

    This quick grow is no doubt good news. :)

  6. +Fubar - 02 February 2010 - 19:06

    wow thats pretty impressive, windows 7 is by far their best os to date heres to it getting better :)

  7. +brentaal - 02 February 2010 - 19:06

    Fubar said,
    wow thats pretty impressive, windows 7 is by far their best os to date heres to it getting better :)

    +1

  8. ThaCrip - 02 February 2010 - 19:36

    Fubar said,
    wow thats pretty impressive, windows 7 is by far their best os to date heres to it getting better :)

    well i like Windows 7 to but i would not say the 'by far' part simply because it's not really true.

    if anything i would have labeled that on Windows XP simply because going from Winodws 98 to XP was a much bigger leap forward than XP is to Win7.

    98 to XP was a huge leap forward for system stability. XP to Win7 you don't get this big leap.

    sure Windows 7 is better in other ways but in terms of stuff 'just working' there was a bigger leap between Win98 to WinXP than any other OS after that.

  9. RealFduch - 02 February 2010 - 20:19

    ThaCrip said,

    well i like Windows 7 to but i would not say the 'by far' part simply because it's not really true.

    if anything i would have labeled that on Windows XP simply because going from Winodws 98 to XP was a much bigger leap forward than XP is to Win7.

    98 to XP was a huge leap forward for system stability. XP to Win7 you don't get this big leap.

    sure Windows 7 is better in other ways but in terms of stuff 'just working' there was a bigger leap between Win98 to WinXP than any other OS after that.


    1, 7, 10
    Which is the highest number?

    Edit (RealFduch, 02 February 2010 - 20:19):

  10. Owen Williams - 02 February 2010 - 23:34

    ThaCrip said,

    well i like Windows 7 to but i would not say the 'by far' part simply because it's not really true.

    if anything i would have labeled that on Windows XP simply because going from Winodws 98 to XP was a much bigger leap forward than XP is to Win7.

    98 to XP was a huge leap forward for system stability. XP to Win7 you don't get this big leap.

    sure Windows 7 is better in other ways but in terms of stuff 'just working' there was a bigger leap between Win98 to WinXP than any other OS after that.


    You seriously think that WindowsXP is more stable than 7? You made me LOL

  11. Beaux - 02 February 2010 - 23:59

    Owenw said,

    You seriously think that WindowsXP is more stable than 7? You made me LOL
    You need to learn to read. He said nothing like that.

  12. M_Lyons10 - 03 February 2010 - 04:52

    Fubar said,
    wow thats pretty impressive, windows 7 is by far their best os to date heres to it getting better :)

    +1. I can't wait to see what they do with Windows 8 now... LOL

  13. Beaux - 03 February 2010 - 07:36

    RealFduch said,

    1, 7, 10
    Which is the highest number?
    The question isn't which is the highest number. The question is: Is 10 the highest number "by far"?

    The answer is: no. 10 is only the highest number by a little bit. (compared to the difference between the 1 and the 7)

    You missed the main point of his post, which is the words "by far".

  14. Pauleh - 03 February 2010 - 11:17

    ThaCrip said,

    Winodws 98 to XP ... XP is to Win7.

    Why are you missing out entire OS's?

    98 -> 2000 -> XP
    XP -> Vista -> Win7

  15. MulletRobZ - 05 February 2010 - 01:30

    Pauleh said,

    Why are you missing out entire OS's?

    98 -> 2000 -> XP
    XP -> Vista -> Win7

    Because Windows 2000 was an upgrade of Windows NT 4.0 (a business OS), NOT Windows 98 (a home OS). Windows ME was the placeholder between 98 and XP for home users, and I can say from experience that Windows ME was Microsoft's biggest gaffe ever. It was unstable, whereas 98 was at least half decent; and upgrading critical software on ME resulted in data loss when I tried it, whereas the same upgrades in 98 worked fine. It wasn't until XP when home users had a true upgrade option from 95/98.

    As for Vista, one literally had to get a new computer in order to upgrade from XP if the computer was from 2005 or before. Some of the older software and hardware wouldn't work properly, and there were a fair number of initial bugs. Those, along with other factors, resulted in a relatively large amount of resistance to Vista. Windows 7 addressed virtually all of these concerns, including XP Mode in the Pro and Ultimate editions, so home and business users would be more willing to upgrade to Windows 7.

    And of course, there is that theory of business users having a tendency to upgrade every other version instead of every version (NT 4.0 directly to XP, and now XP directly to 7).

  16. chicken-royal - 02 February 2010 - 19:06

    Great news. Used it since the RC and got the final version when it was released and it replaced XP. Love it :)

  17. Majesticmerc - 02 February 2010 - 19:09

    Great news, but I do have one question. Whats the deal with the peaks and troughs in the graph? I would assume that growth would go up and down, but for % to go down seems strange :-S

  18. vaximily - 02 February 2010 - 19:16

    Majesticmerc said,
    Great news, but I do have one question. Whats the deal with the peaks and troughs in the graph? I would assume that growth would go up and down, but for % to go down seems strange :-S

    Indeed, I was just wondering the same thing.

  19. +Chrono951 - 02 February 2010 - 19:18

    Also wondering.

  20. Beaux - 02 February 2010 - 19:22

    Majesticmerc said,
    Great news, but I do have one question. Whats the deal with the peaks and troughs in the graph? I would assume that growth would go up and down, but for % to go down seems strange :-S
    The peaks are the weekends, when people use their home computers more. During the week, people use their computers at work with windows xp more.

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