Windows 7 gains significant usage share ahead of Windows 10 launch
Windows 8.x enjoyed a good month in May. The tiled operating system finally overtook Windows XP for the first time in six months -- its gains coming mostly at the expense of Windows 7. But it was all change again in June according to the latest usage stats from web analytics firm NetMarketShare.
The latest figures show Windows 8.x losing share -- or business as usual you might say -- going from 16.63 percent to 16.02 percent. That’s a drop of 0.61 percentage points. Windows 8.1 actually gained 0.24 percentage points, but Windows 8 lost 0.85 percentage points. Still overall it remains comfortably ahead of XP now, so there's that consolation prize.
The aging -- should be dead by now surely? -- XP dropped 2.62 percentage points, going from 14.60 percent in May to 11.98 percent in June.
The big July gains were notched up by Windows 7, which grew 3.22 percentage points, going from 57.76 percent in May to 60.98 last month.
Overall there was slightly more movement than you might expect this close to Windows 10 launching, although there’s the chance that people are switching over to Windows 7 in advance, so they’re ready to upgrade when the new OS arrives on July 29.
Talking of Windows 10, the Insider Preview now has 0.16 of the desktop market share.
Next month we should see the start of the Windows 10 effect as the OS will be available for a few days at the end of July, and so should be recorded in NetMarketShare’s figures for the month.
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