It is no secret that Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have had a hard time in the market. Their predecessor, Windows 7, boasted a strong adoption rate not long after it was released but sadly that hasn’t been the case with these two iterations of Microsoft’s operating system. A bump in performance was seen last month though which has enabled Windows 8/8.1 to now account for 15 percent of the market collectively.
By gaining 0.29 percentage points Windows 8 climbed to 5.88 percent of the market whereas Windows 8.1 gained 4.25 percentage points and now accounts for 10.92 percent of the market, according to the latest data from Net Applications.
This also marks the first time that Windows 8.1 has entered into the double digits, but its not as impressive as it may seem, given the fact that this latest version has been out for well over an year.
Windows 7 didn’t have to lose market share just so its successors could go, instead it gained 0.34 percentage points to keep its hold on what is now 53.05 percent of the market. But given that Microsoft has now stopped OEM sales of Windows 7 its unlikely that the software will climb up any higher in the coming months.
Both Vista and XP registered significant drops which contributed to the gains in Windows 8/8.1. Last month Windows XP actually registered its biggest fall yet and now its market share sits below 20 percent for the first time in nearly ten years.
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.