Windows 8 Grabs 5.42% of the OS Market

​

Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system has managed to grab 5.42 percent of the OS market at the end of July, recent data from Net Applications unveils.

However, the operating system grew only 0.32 percentage points during the month, after enjoying a 0.83 percentage points increase in June.

According to a recent article on TNW, the June surge was mainly due to the release of Windows 8.1 Preview, which helped the platform gain 5.10 percent market share.

In July, however, its growth slowed down, though it was accompanied by a 0.13 percentage points increase in Windows 7 usage, which now accounts for 44.50 percent of the market.

Ever since its official release in October, Windows 8 has showed steady growth, though the July increase appears to be the smallest one until now.

Available only as a Preview version for the time being, Windows 8.1 should arrive on PCs in the not too distant future, offering some appealing new features when compared to Windows 8, and capable of attracting more users to it, that’s for sure.

This should help Windows 8 increase its share on the market, though it might still take a while before it will manage to take down already established platform iterations from Microsoft.

Windows 8 Grabs 5.42% of the OS Market

 

[Rickkins]

Yea, that's what always baffles me, the solution was so very very simple.... how is it possible that the multitude of high price geniuses at ms central missed it...???

 

[PhyllisColeman]

Hi there
"Grabs" is hardly IMO the correct expression -- might be desperately via brute force and lack of other possible choices grudgingly reaches 5.4% of the market. (For most people using Linux or Apple isn't an option -- and W7 has all but disappeared from normal retail channels).

"Grabs" essentially implies that the OS is taking retail by storm which even the most biased person can see quite clearly it most definitely isn't.

Windows 8.1 might fare a little better though provided they do something with that REDICULOUS start button. At least link that button to Power on / Off / restart /Logoff etc if nothing else.

Cheers
jimbo

I fail to see what any of this has to do with Apple or Linux. People who don't like 8 can easily stick with Windows 7. A lot of people like the OS they have evidence by the way XP is holding on, Windows 8 is a big change for a lot of people. Big change does not go over well in technology. That being said being at 5.4. "Grabs" might not be the best word, but 5.4 is not that far off from where they were headed at the growth rate 8 has been going at, even with that being slow. Maybe they're at 5.4 becuase more and more people are getting used to Windows 8 every day. Im sure many are liking what they see from 8.1 as well. This whole notion of "Windows 8 is not enough like 7, so I'm switching the Linux or Mac" makes very little sense to me. Despite its flaws, especially with the option of Desktop, Windows 8 is still more like the previous OS than Mac. I don't know anyone would expect that Windows 8 sales would just stop. Everyone does have the mentality that they're not even going to try to get used to Windows 8.

you are accurate..

 

[mcnulty]

Just like most people with common sense predicted, Windows 8, AKA, the Hybrid, is failing at both mobile and desktop markets.

If anyone at Microsoft is still capable of listening, can you please declare the experiment over, remove Metro from the desktop, and give us our Start Menu and Aero back?

 

[acr731]

Just like most people with common sense predicted, Windows 8, AKA, the Hybrid, is failing at both mobile and desktop markets.

If anyone at Microsoft is still capable of listening, can you please declare the experiment over, remove Metro from the desktop, and give us our Start Menu and Aero back?

Better be careful bashing Microsoft. Next thing you know they'll change the latest "start" button into a Trojan virus that sends your personal info and data to the NSA each time you click on it.

Wait.... Win 8 already does that without having to click on the fake start button.

 

[XweAponX]

The only other option when Vista came out was XP. 8 is having to compete with both XP and 7, two OS that people really like. Plus, it's a bigger change from 7 to 8 than from XP to Vista. Plus as bad as the coverage of Vista was, it's worse with 8 and even at times overblown. Of Course for a while 8 is going to sell slowly. But as they continue to make improvements and people continue to get used to it, the share will increase. Plus, people are going to have to get off XP eventually.

You think 7 to 8 is a more massive overall change? I don't think so. XP to Vista was a gargantuan change, but with 7 to 8, the Desktop is relatively identical to 7. It's only the addition of the Start Screen and the Graphical Boot GUI.

Look, Windows XP was the last OS which used a DOS-based install screen for a portion of the install. From Vista up, the install disks would mount a version of the new OS in order to install to the PC. That was a major change, and it has stayed the same for Vista, 7 and 8.

But from 7 to 8, the directory structures are all pretty much the same, and it operates mostly like 7 does. I don't see the addition of the Start Screen and the Boot GUI as more of a change than XP to Vista. From XP to Vista, there were major changes to the directory structure, but between Vista and 7 and from 7 to 8, it really hasn't changed much.

 

[legacy7955]

Yea, that's what always baffles me, the solution was so very very simple.... how is it possible that the multitude of high price geniuses at ms central missed it...???

Remember a couple of years or so back when MS had a company wide meeting of the designers, programmers, engineers, and others and almost HALF of them walked out of the meeting? Those naysayers DID NOT MISS IT, they were overruled by Ballmer and other top execs.

Now my question is for business school folks...if Paul Allen and Bill Gates would have been brought in as consultants and asked for their input, do you think either of these two guys would have missed it? I seriously doubt it. There is NO way MS would be in the same prostrate position that they are in now, if they would have had idea men along side a guy like Ballmer. In fact I believe that had Allen and Gates been around Ballmer would have been overruled and we would have seen a Windows 8 like most of us had envisioned. Most importantly the customer would have had a choice of which GUI they wanted to use as the default at every boot. I mean what a simple no brainer decision.

MS NEEDS TO FIND A WAY TO GET PAUL ALLEN AND BILL GATES BACK AS CONSULTANTS, SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY....EVEN IF BALLMER HAS TO GET ON HIS KNEES AND KISS THEIR FEET!

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
The START button and menu is an IRRELEVANCE once you have BOOT directly to desktop -- which is what Windows 8.1 can do.

I'd suggest to all "Start button and Menu" wishers to just TRY windows 8.1 -- create a Programs custom toolbar and boot directly to desktop and now see if your original concerns about windows 8 are actually valid.

Note also that there are essentially TWO start screens -- the standard one every desktop user hates and the Applications one -- and you can specify that the APPLICATIONS screen appears FIRST on the rare times you actually want the Start screen.

Applications are installed to the APPLICATIONS screen not the START screen initially so it's easier to manage and of course you can pin them to the W8 equivalent of the start screen as well as desktop and taskbar.

If you really MUST have a menu just for example use a custom toolbar - it pops up your programs just like a MENU and is much nicer (rather like the XP small menu) than the standard W7 menu which quite frankly looks a bit stupid when you are using 60 / 72 inch monitors !! and a lot do these days.

The whole metro stuff is still a pile of dog poo for desktops but apart from some glitches with IE11 windows 8.1 is worth a try.

For those who haven't use a custom toolbar - this is what it looks like even on W8.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[EMINENT]

Are people still angry?


Seriously, stick with something else if you can't handle change. It would make sense if there was no way to change it to how you want or there was no other option out there.

You all have a choice. You have a choice for a third-party add, another os, etc.

I don't go complaining on the Nissan forums how they don't make a 2 seat 370Z.

8.1 further enhances my tablet experience and I love it. Is it perfect? No. Can I make it function only in desktop? Yes, but I wouldn't like it as much. It's not the end of the world and your opinion doesn't speak for me or others that get by fine with the way it is.

Sorry, but your rants are falling on deaf ears and it's plain laughable.

 

[legacy7955]

Are people still angry?



Sorry, but your rants are falling on deaf ears and it's plain laughable.

Yeah, that is why MS is introducing the UNscheduled, UNplanned release of Windows 8.1 this fall. LOL

 

[pulsar68]

...

You all have a choice. You have a choice for a third-party add, another os, etc. ...

My choice... another OS.
Bye bye Microsoft

Yeah, that is why MS is introducing the UNscheduled, UNplanned release of Windows 8.1 this fall. LOL

Naaaaa... that's because Microsoft loves all of us

 

[sygnus21]

Hi there
"Grabs" is hardly IMO the correct expression -- might be desperately via brute force and lack of other possible choices grudgingly reaches 5.4% of the market. (For most people using Linux or Apple isn't an option -- and W7 has all but disappeared from normal retail channels).

"Grabs" essentially implies that the OS is taking retail by storm which even the most biased person can see quite clearly it most definitely isn't.

Windows 8.1 might fare a little better though provided they do something with that REDICULOUS start button. At least link that button to Power on / Off / restart /Logoff etc if nothing else.

Cheers
jimbo

I fail to see what any of this has to do with Apple or Linux. People who don't like 8 can easily stick with Windows 7. A lot of people like the OS they have evidence by the way XP is holding on, Windows 8 is a big change for a lot of people. Big change does not go over well in technology. That being said being at 5.4. "Grabs" might not be the best word, but 5.4 is not that far off from where they were headed at the growth rate 8 has been going at, even with that being slow. Maybe they're at 5.4 becuase more and more people are getting used to Windows 8 every day. Im sure many are liking what they see from 8.1 as well. This whole notion of "Windows 8 is not enough like 7, so I'm switching the Linux or Mac" makes very little sense to me. Despite its flaws, especially with the option of Desktop, Windows 8 is still more like the previous OS than Mac. I don't know anyone would expect that Windows 8 sales would just stop. Everyone does have the mentality that they're not even going to try to get used to Windows 8.

You make too much sense here


Anyway if it were up to some, we may have never got XP or Windows 7. Heck going back a bit, we may have never gotten Windows 98. Oh my gawd.... they'll killing off DOS!

 

[SIW2]

Beats me why so few understand. Dos to gui was accepted because people realised it was a change for the better.

Change is not automatically better.

Getting a dreadful terminal disease is a change. Most people do not welcome that.

 

[sygnus21]

Change is not automatically better.

No, it isn't, but it still happens, and we must learn to cope.... or else we stress our selves out

Getting a dreadful terminal disease is a change. Most people do not welcome that.

As one who battled such a disease, no, it wasn't fun, and I didn't like it.... but I, as well as many others, had to deal with it, like it or not.

At any rate the issue here and now isn't some "dreadful terminal disease", it's an OS GUI change, not a life ending event!

I think we're over dramatizing things a bit. It isn't that serious. When the next OS comes along, we'll be hearing the same ole vitriol. Just like we heard when moving from XP to Vista to 7.

With that, we agree on this... no one likes change

 

[EMINENT]

...

You all have a choice. You have a choice for a third-party add, another os, etc. ...

My choice... another OS.
Bye bye Microsoft

Don't let the garage door come crashing down on ya on the way out!

 

[Mustang]

Change is not automatically better.

No, it isn't, but it still happens, and we must learn to cope.... or else we stress our selves out

Getting a dreadful terminal disease is a change. Most people do not welcome that.

As one who battled such a disease, no, it wasn't fun, and I didn't like it.... but I, as well as many others, had to deal with it, like it or not.

At any rate the issue here and now isn't some "dreadful terminal disease", it's an OS GUI change, not a life ending event!

I think we're over dramatizing things a bit. It isn't that serious. When the next OS comes along, we'll be hearing the same ole vitriol. Just like we heard when moving from XP to Vista to 7.

With that, we agree on this... no one likes change

You have totally missed the point of SIW2's post.

Which is, that whenever anyone criticizes the changes in W8, instead of examining the actual changes objectively to assess whether they are positive or negative, they are accused of simply being unable to adapt to change.

And that is a red herring to avoid the issue of such objective examination of the changes.

Putting all that aside, W8 has been summarily rejected by consumers. And that's the final verdict on the efficacy of the changes ... and the reason for the negative responses in this forum, in the hope that M$ will listen to it's critics, and not just pay lip service by claiming they do.

 

[Mustang]

One of the reasons put forward for the failure of W8 by it's proponents is that the desktop computer market has reached saturation.

That is also a red herring and denial of reality. The actual number of new machines may have slowed to the level of simply maintaining the status quo, with relatively small new machines being sold, but updating software to the latest version of Windows is a totally different matter.


If W8 is the wonder OS it is touted as being by fanbois, consumers would be flocking to the vendors to buy it. And it would be the logical upgrade for businesses facing the imminent demise of XP.

And while XP is not in use by many enthusiasts, it is still in use by many businesses, who won't change until it's unsupported. In the past few months, I have personally seen it in use in large banks and finance organization, doctors' surgeries, insurance companies ... and the list goes on.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Actually the desktop market is undergoing a SMALL revival -- it will never go back to the old Halcyon days where the PC was the ONLY device you had for email, Internet etc but more and more people at HOME and at WORK are buying into the use of both MULTIPLE and LARGE monitors - this type of platform definitely needs a proper PC with a proper OS -- not a stupid TOUCH mobile type OS.

Even at work these days I have THREE monitors at my desk -- and most colleagues I know in other jobs with a variety of different clients certainly have at least TWO and I'm not even in I.T support or services -- although I do a certain amount of testing what developers have produced and also some QC before roll out.

I think you'll find that the majority of largish workplaces these days where users only have ONE monitor is becoming a rarity.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Mustang]

@ Jimbo. I only use computers for personal use, which includes hobby ... as well as business use; and am not involved in any way with servers, development or IT work.

However, I have for quite a long time been the "friendly neighbourhood PC geek" ... neighbourhood meaning personal friends, residents of the complex I live in, acquaintances and memebers of a world wide self help organization.

As such I do get to see and repair, upgrade and reinstall windows for quite a large and diverse number of persons. And from time to time buy the parts and build new rigs for individuals. It is my experience that most private users have both desktop and one or more mobile devices, with smartfones in the van ... with the latter sometimes being used as hot spot modems. Many will also have a laptop or tablet.

I am constantly amazed at how many persons are still using XP. And don't even know anything about the "bad hair day dramas" in the progression from Vista to Win8. I think one of the reasons they don't leave XP is because it does the simple basic things they need to do, like paying bills online; emails; and social networking. And what the desktop may lack because of mobility restrictions is made up for in a simple hand held device ... with iPhone/Pad in the van ... for better or worse.

 

[lehnerus2000]

That is also a red herring and denial of reality. The actual number of new machines may have slowed to the level of simply maintaining the status quo, with relatively small new machines being sold, but updating software to the latest version of Windows is a totally different matter.


If W8 is the wonder OS it is touted as being by fanbois, consumers would be flocking to the vendors to buy it. And it would be the logical upgrade for businesses facing the imminent demise of XP.

Exactly.

And while XP is not in use by many enthusiasts, it is still in use by many businesses, who won't change until it's unsupported. In the past few months, I have personally seen it in use in large banks and finance organization, doctors' surgeries, insurance companies ... and the list goes on.

I use an XP VM for my old games.

I have XP installed so that I can use the tagging feature in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

It "runs amok" in W7, because of the Libraries (just like WMP12).
Presumably the same thing would happen in W8 (I didn't install it in any of the W8 previews).

 

[sygnus21]

You have totally missed the point of SIW2's post.

I could easily say the same about you, but I won't get into a tit for tat argument. We're done.

That said, just because I choose not follow the masses doesn't mean I don't get it. It just means I tend to look at things a bit more differently. Everyone has an opinion, and I have mine.

I've been around these forums for a long time - vista, seven, and now eight. Most of the people here know me; and even though we may disagree, I've never made it personal, nor tried disrespecting anyone. As I like to say... we can agree to disagree agreeably and move on.

And for the record, I'm quite aware 8 has some short comings, and agree with some of the stuff said... but not all.

Have a good day.

Peace