Latest OS share data shows Windows still dominating in PCs
Summary: The latest monthly OS share numbers from NetMarketShare show few surprises. XP continues to slide, Windows 8 is very slowly gaining traction, and Microsoft still dominates usage in the declining market for traditional PCs. But the numbers show a few unexpected trends.
It’s the beginning of a new month, which means it’s time for a new batch of data from NetMarketShare on the usage share of desktop operating systems. Not coincidentally, that also means it’s time for the tech blogosphere to stare at the numbers for a few microseconds, deliver some snap judgments, and move on to the next shiny thing.
I prefer to dig a little deeper. Minor changes in monthly usage shares are mostly noise. It’s the trends that matter more. And because I’ve been collating these monthly figures at regular intervals for the past six years, I have that trend data close at hand, in handy graphical format.
The number that every other tech reporter will focus on today is the share for Windows 8. If you read that Windows 8’s share of usage is up to 3.17 percent, give that reporter a failing grade. The actual number is slightly higher, because you have to add in 0.12 percent for Windows 8 Touch and another 0.02 percent for Windows RT Touch (which NetMarketShare lumps into the Windows 8 bucket). At the current trajectory, Windows 8 is likely to pass 10 percent share by its first birthday this fall.
[Update: A note on those percentages. That 0.12 percent figure is presumably when NetMarketShare detected that a touch browser (Internet Explorer 10) was being used on Windows 8. That number shoiuld be compared to the total Windows 8 number of 3.17 percent. That means that roughly 4 percent of Windows 8 traffic is coming via touch, with an indeterminate amount of traffic coming via conventional desktop browsers on a touch-enabled Windows 8 PC. The actual percentage of touch-enabled PCs is therefore at least 4 percent and probably higher.]
How accurate is that 3.3 percent figure? Who knows? It could be off significantly in either direction, and any math one tries to do with these numbers is fuzzy at best. But taken at face value, with appropriately large error bars, that percent would be equal to about 50 million Windows 8 PCs in use in a world with an installed base of 1.5 billion PCs and Macs running Windows, desktop Linux, or OS X.
Here are my takeaways from the new data:
- Windows XP (38.73 percent) continues its steady decline, but its share of web usage is still remarkably high for a product that will reach its official end of life in just over a year.
- Windows Vista (4.99 percent) is nearly invisible, with a share that has finally (if barely) dropped below 5 percent. Despite its decline, Vista is still used more than any individual version of OS X.
- Windows 7 (44.73 percent) appears to have taken on the unofficial role as the Long-Term Support version of Windows, replacing XP. Note the green and blue lines that dominate this chart. Every other operating system, from Microsoft or its rivals, is in the sub-10 percent range, making them experimental, transitional, or part of a market niche. Of the entries on that chart, Windows 8 is the only one that I expect to break through the 10 percent barrier, and even at that Windows 8 might turn out to be transitional.
- Windows 8 (3.31 percent) is slowly (very slowly) gaining traction. It’s worth noting that Windows 7’s steady increase in usage flatlined as soon as Windows 8 was released.
On traditional PCs and Macs, Microsoft still owns an overwhelming market share, with 91.8 percent of all traffic coming from Windows-based machines. Among non-Microsoft operating systems, both OS X and Linux have stalled since October 2011, hovering around 6.9 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
With the general decline of the PC market, that could just mean that Apple has focused more of its energy on mobile devices (which are not included in these numbers). In my personal stats, I've noticed that nearly 20 percent of all traffic over the past few months has been from mobile devices, and that percentage continues to grow.
In looking at the numbers, I noticed one trend you probably won’t see discussed elsewhere. Pundits obsess over upgrade rates for Microsoft Windows versions, but they almost never mention OS X. So here are a few Mac facts to chew on:
- Despite its $19.99 price tag, only 38.3 percent of all Mac users are running the most recent OS X release, Mountain Lion, which was released eight months ago. Most of those were included with new Macs.
- More Mac users are running the 2009 Snow Leopard (27 percent of Mac users) than the 2011 Lion (26.2 percent).
- Surprisingly, 35.5 percent of all Mac users are running versions of OS X that are officially unsupported by Apple. That places them at a higher risk of contracting malware delivered through flaws in the Java browser plugin, which was shipped with every version of OS X until Snow Leopard.
Oh, and one more interesting fact worth passing along. One widely discussed operating system isn’t visible in the NetMarketShare numbers. There’s no entry for Chrome OS at all. A spokesperson for the company tells me those numbers will be included in an update to their tracking stats, coming soon.
Net Market Share publishes snapshots of PC usage based on data from 160 million visits per month to its large collection of sites (the exact methodology is here). Its monthly reports on operating system versions contain a wealth of detailed information about even the most obscure OSes. Their stats for mobile platforms are tracked separately.
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Talkback
But Ed, I FEEL like Windows 8 isn't doing well
Kudos to Microsoft.
Ha right?
RedSoldat and all the kids in play school
:)
Blue...
now thats a healthy opinion.
"best"
Do you have solid facts to back up that it is the "best"? Can you even definitively define HOW an operating system CAN be best? Because some mac users certainly don't think Windows is the best, and as a Linux user I don't think it's the best.
I'm not some anti-Microsoft troll. I am a Linux user, and I can see only a few places Windows dominates absolutely. All other places I can think of are subjective.
1. Familiarity - As it is currently the OS preinstalled on most computers, almost everyone has used windows at some point. I almost called this "User Friendliness" but that's a misleading name, as it wouldn't exactly be friendly to someone who had only ever used Mac.
2. Most developed for - Another unfortunate side effect of being the most preinstalled, most applications are developed for Windows first. There are a lot of great tools for Linux, many of which not available for Windows, but more small applications are Windows only.
3. Current Standards - Let's face it: If everyone else in the world uses OS A, but you use OS B, some things between are bound to not work right. We have a great Office Suite, Libreoffice, but it's compatibility with Microsoft Office is only so good. Chances are, you're going to be forced to use Windows at some point, that or Mac which the software better supports.
Thing is, none of these are Linux's fault. They are all because Windows is currently the most used, and could be changed.
That said, I'm willing to accept any subjective advantages YOU see to using Windows, so long as you don't try to tell ME that my OS is factually inferior.
Good points
2 and 3 are the big ones but MS has been working tirelessly to make them the standard that other OS's need to match. Windows always seems to put program compatibility at their forefront so their users are never stranded in a situation where they cant run something vs. other OS's that buck relying on someone elses software and want to have a more vertical approach to the industry.
Point being ... vertical approaches dont work unless everyone (or at least most everyone) uses your product. MS could do this, and they do to an extent, but not on the level that Macs for example do. In a world where everyone has all these different devices and different program languages etc. you better be sure yours interfaces in large part with all of them versus trying to get everyone to buy all the devices in your chain because they are the only ones fully compatible with your system. MS has some slack in this area now that theyve built the empire they have.
Windows 8 Operating System Real Alternative
LOL - I stopped playing with colored blocks when I was 6
Windows 8 = Vista
Windows 7 is the real operating system until MS figures out people don't want to run a inefficient mobile OS on a desktop. I wish they would hurry up and copy Apple's model, they are behind schedule.
cut it out....
i guess you are a linux person, well linux has tried and tried over the last 25 years at least and can get into 1% of the total consumer market. you know why because there are no serious programs for linux that everyday people use. they have alternatives but face it they aren't serious contenders. so in reality microsofts new ui is more efficent and productive then linux.
I was with you until...
I agree with you about productivity on Linux vs. Windows hog
Of course many of the minutes using Windows is spent waiting for the slow MS DOS file system and the registry to actually work.
So since time is money, Linux saves me a lot of money.
Wrong Tyrelle
Oh, and the 1% figure is bogus. Real usage taken from on line sites give usage as closer to 12% for Linux. The figures given are only what shipped with the hardware. Most Linux users buy the Windows boxes, as the annoying programs shipped as a "service". (Even Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer hate that annoyance). The presence of this unwanted software lowers the cost of the computer by around $80.00, which is more than the $30.00 Microsoft usually charges the OEMs. That means that a Windows box is usually $50.00 less expensive than a bare metal box.
But don't worry, about 10% of those Linux users are 'Dual Booters' as I am. We Dual Booters use both Windows and Linux on the same computer.
Microsoft doesn't care, as they can still sell the OS, often 'bundled' with the Office package they sell. That we don't use it makes no difference to them. They've already been paid. (That's the Microsoft tax.)
MS didn't used to care...
Total BS
The problem with Linux lovers is that they cannot grasp that even in IT industry there is only a tiny proportion of people who are actual geeks, now imagine how tiny that proportion is if you take the whole population into account. This is why Linux will never ever go mainstream on the desktop.
On that subject
Which leads to the cat that takes the mouse.
The secret to Dells is that the cheese stands alone!
We would like there to be a farmer in the Dell
Win 7 versus Win 8
Touch Screens
Due to my bio-chemical makeup, I can't use touch screens - including touchpads on notebooks/laptops. Windows 8 is fully keyboard friendly. There are a multitude of shortcut keys available to do almost everything a user may want to do. Windows 8 just isn't mouse friendly, but it can still be used to a great extent - if a person is willing to read all the how-to-make-windows 8-work articles available on ZDNet and elsewhere.
If you're happy with Windows 7, just say so. There's no shame in that, and Windows 7 won't be going away any time soon. Just don't make false claims to support your preferences.