Windows 7 has for long been the most popular iteration of Microsoft’s desktop operating system. That has now changed about a year before the company officially drops support for this iteration. Windows 10 has now become the most popular version of Microsoft’s operating system in the world. It has taken this version three and a half years to establish a lead over the dominant iteration.
According to Net Applications, Windows 10’s market share stood at 39.22 percent in December 2018 compared to 36.9 percent for Windows 7. Microsoft may have originally expected to achieve this lead for Windows 10 much earlier but it has been three and a half years since this version was released. It goes to show just how popular Windows 7 is given that it has maintained a dominant position for so long despite having come out some ten years ago.
Microsoft had initially planned to have a billion devices running on Windows 10 within three years of its release. However, the company later decided to extend that timeline when it became evident that this was too ambitious. It’s running on some 700 million or so devices currently.
The company is going to conclude its extended support for Windows 7 come January 14th, 2020. It will face a tough task in moving business customers over to Windows 10, particularly those who have been willing to shell out extra money for the Extended Security Updates program for Windows 7.
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft, Windows 10 and Windows 7.