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While everyone is saying that Windows 8 is a failure, the newest itteration of Microsoft operating system (at least, for now), made a big jump in the right direction last month. With an additional 2.01% market share, Windows 8 is now in a solid 3rd position and jumps over all Mac OS X versions combined. Meanwhile, Windows 8.1 also gained market share and is now on 0.24% (compared to 0.02% last month).

 

Internet Explorer also gained market share, and with 57,60%, it's now 0.99% higher than last month. Internet Explorer 10 growed with 3.29% (to 18.65%), while Internet Explorer 11 also grows with 0.24% (to 0.26%). Internet Explorer 8 losed 1.87% of it's market share and is now realy close to IE10 with 21.65%. Internet Explorer 9 losed 0.67% market share and drops to 9.02%. Internet Explorer 10 takes the second place, with IE8 still first, but that seems to come to an end realy soon. Internet Explorer 6 and 7 also losed market share, but with both a 0.02% drop, it's not much.

While everyone is saying that Windows 8 is a failure, the newest itteration of Microsoft operating system (at least, for now), made a big jump in the right direction last month. With an additional 2.01% market share, Windows 8 is now in a solid 3rd position and jumps over all Mac OS X versions combined. Meanwhile, Windows 8.1 also gained market share and is now on 0.24% (compared to 0.02% last month).

 

Internet Explorer also gained market share, and with 57,60%, it's now 0.99% higher than last month. Internet Explorer 10 growed with 3.29% (to 18.65%), while Internet Explorer 11 also grows with 0.24% (to 0.26%). Internet Explorer 8 losed 1.87% of it's market share and is now realy close to IE10 with 21.65%. Internet Explorer 9 losed 0.67% market share and drops to 9.02%. Internet Explorer 10 takes the second place, with IE8 still first, but that seems to come to an end realy soon. Internet Explorer 6 and 7 also losed market share, but with both a 0.02% drop, it's not much.

Windows 8 was aided by two promotional offers:

  • From June 2, 2012 to January 31, 2013, customers who bought a new Windows 7 PC were eligible for a $14.99 upgrade to Windows 8 Pro; the highest version tailored to consumers.

     

  • In addition, Microsoft unveiled a $39.99 upgrade offer for then-current users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Even users of the Windows 8 Release Preview were eligible for this offer, provided that they had a license(s) for the aforementioned operating systems.

Yet in spite of these offers, Windows 8 only gained a total 1.63% marketshare within a three-month time period. Contrast this with Windows 7, which had more than 3% marketshare in less than two weeks.

Windows 8 was aided by two promotional offers:

  • From June 2, 2012 to January 31, 2013, customers who bought a new Windows 7 PC were eligible for a $14.99 upgrade to Windows 8 Pro; the highest version tailored to consumers.

     

  • In addition, Microsoft unveiled a $39.99 upgrade offer for then-current users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Even users of the Windows 8 Release Preview were eligible for this offer, provided that they had a license(s) for the aforementioned operating systems.

Yet in spite of these offers, Windows 8 only gained a total 1.63% marketshare within a three-month time period. Contrast this with Windows 7, which had more than 3% marketshare in less than two weeks.

 

So what you're saying is it climbed another 7% without any special offers? That's pretty cool.

  • Like 2

Windows 8 was very very slow in adoption in the beginning compare to Windows 7. Windows 7 reached 10% within a few month whereas Windows 8 still hasn't reached 10% adoption after almost year. I think Windows 8 being a success or failure is still debatable! I grabbed 3 Windows 8 licenses only because I could get them for $14.99 each. Windows 8 works well but I personally find the start screen slightly impractical compared to the good old start menu.

 

http://marketshare.hitslink.co...mp;qpnp=2&qptimeframe=Y
http://marketshare.hitslink.co...mp;qpnp=2&qptimeframe=Y

Windows 8 was very very slow in adoption in the beginning compare to Windows 7. Windows 7 reached 10% within a few month whereas Windows 8 still hasn't reached 10% adoption after almost year. I think Windows 8 being a success or failure is still debatable! I grabbed 3 Windows 8 licenses only because I could get them for $14.99 each. Windows 8 works well but I personally find the start screen slightly impractical compared to the good old start menu.

 

http://marketshare.hitslink.co...mp;qpnp=2&qptimeframe=Y

http://marketshare.hitslink.co...mp;qpnp=2&qptimeframe=Y

 

I agree with you and I also bought cheap Windows 8 upgrades. I ended up sticking with Windows 7 though.

 

On the other hand, I think Windows 7 sold so well because Windows XP was so obsolete and unsafe that people were ready to upgrade, plus technology did change considerably between 2001 and 2009. They just didn't upgrade to Vista because they heard so many bad things about it.

 

Between 2009 and 2012/Win8 release, most of the big change in consumer technology happened in mobile devices, so you probably have a lot of people who are still happy with their existing PC or even some nonproductive folks who are replacing their PCs outright with a tablet.

I remember in 2009 when I got a new Windows 7 laptop after using a Compaq Evo n620c with Windows XP for 5 years, how amazing Windows 7 was.  Windows 7 compared to Vista & XP felt new, fresh, faster and very nice. I think Windows 8 is very nice also and builds on Windows 7's success. You could tell Windows 7 had features aimed for touchscreens already (before 8), especially the onscreen keyboard and the taskbar. Windows 8 was just deigned for another range of devices and is why it feels and seems so different.

I have a feeling that Windows 8.1 + Haswell will cause a mass exodus from XP to 8.1. Remember overall desktop marketshare is 91% to Windows so no real overall room for growth, but getting those XP to 8.1 is critical.

 

i fully agree Windows 8.1 + Haswell will be awesome with Tablets! I want a Windows Surface Pro 2 with a 4 Ghz Intel i5 4 Ghz processor, 8 GB of ram, 256 GB SSD, dedicated video card if possible, 20 hours of battery life, 1 Gbps Wifi so if I ever move to where Google Fiber is I am ready, and 3G/4G Wireless internet support that I will only use sometimes so being able to prepaid for it for 30 mins to one month would be awesome. Oh yeah and 7 inch Windows Surface 2 Pro form factor with it weighting only 10 to 12 oz.

 

I am willing to pay $499 to $899 for it.

 

Though Windows Surface Pro 2 should start at $299 if not $199 to sell like hot cakes!

i fully agree Windows 8.1 + Haswell will be awesome with Tablets! I want a Windows Surface Pro 2 with a 4 Ghz Intel i5 4 Ghz processor, 8 GB of ram, 256 GB SSD, dedicated video card if possible, 20 hours of battery life, 1 Gbps Wifi so if I ever move to where Google Fiber is I am ready, and 3G/4G Wireless internet support that I will only use sometimes so being able to prepaid for it for 30 mins to one month would be awesome. Oh yeah and 7 inch Windows Surface 2 Pro form factor with it weighting only 10 to 12 oz.

 

I am willing to pay $499 to $899 for it.

 

Though Windows Surface Pro 2 should start at $299 if not $199 to sell like hot cakes!

 

Imagine a lot of XP point-of-sale systems can be replaced by an LTE-powered Windows 8.1 hybrid PC.

8.1 is a good step up and the next one should take it up another notch to.  We'll have to wait and see if they can stick to this new release cycle though but I believe they can, no reason 8.2 should take longer than a year if most of the updates to it are UI tweaks.  8.1 added a load of new APIs and I think they'll wait a bit before adding a bunch more so developers can keep up.

 

I expect a boost in the quality of metro apps on 8.1 because of the new APIs though, look at the updated mail app that comes with 8.1 for example.  I see that as a huge jump in functionality specifically because of all the under the hood WinRT updates 8.1 brings.

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