Windows 8 jumps past Apple's OS X with 7.4% market share

Posted:
in macOS edited February 2014
It hasn't been nearly as successful as Microsoft hoped and promised a year ago, but the Windows 8 platform continues to inch forward in market share, most recently surpassing the overall installed base for Apple's Mac OS X.



The latest figures from Net Applications show Windows 8 with a 7.4 percent share of all desktop OS web traffic for August. That's up from the 5.4 percent share the OS held at the beginning of August, a jump of two percentage points.

At the beginning of July, Windows 8 had just barely passed Microsoft's much maligned Windows Vista OS in terms of share, but it still trailed Mac OS X. Now, the new touch-centric OS has surpassed Apple's desktop platform ? with 7.41 percent share for Windows 8 versus 7.3 percent for all OS X installs ? but Apple's dominance in tablets means that it is still beating Windows 8 where most observers believe it counts.

The iPad and competing Android-powered devices have proved especially troublesome for Microsoft to overcome. The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant tried to parlay its dominant position in the older computing environment into a foothold in the new mobile paradigm, but its attempts have sputtered, leaving both Microsoft and its many hardware manufacturing partners grasping as Apple and other mobile manufacturers grab the majority of consumer mindshare.

Windows 7, the follow up to Windows Vista, remains the most popular desktop operating system in the world with a 45.6 percent share, up from 44.5 percent in July. The next most popular is Windows XP, released in August of 2001 but still running on 33.66 percent of sampled desktops. Windows Vista accounted for only 4.11 percent share.

October will see the release of Windows 8.1, an altered version of Windows 8 that adds more functionality and gives back a certain degree of user choice with regard to interface options. Industry analysts, though, are uncertain how well the new version of the OS can do in reversing the general downward trend in PC sales.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 75
    b9botb9bot Posts: 238member
    Not really a big deal since OSX Mavericks is coming soon.
  • Reply 2 of 75
    eeeekkk is XP still that popular!
  • Reply 3 of 75
    XP is still installed on the vast majority of computers at the hospital where I work (maybe all?) -- yes, Virginia, dinosaurs DO still roam the Earth!!!
  • Reply 4 of 75
    Well Microsoft has marketshare on the desktop world. True. It's a result of windows wver since the 80s. The dawn of mobile computing however is a different ball game. Only interested to hear how Microsoft does there.
  • Reply 5 of 75


    I really dont believe.  


    And I have this NetShare fellows. I really feel like they bias the data.

  • Reply 6 of 75
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    Windows 8 marketshare gains are because it is pre-installed on new Windows PCs. New PC buyers have no choice. The Win8 upgrade paints a different picture. Win8 is no Win7.
  • Reply 7 of 75
    wardcwardc Posts: 150member


    This is saying Mac OS X makes up only 6.5% Marketshare of installed userbase worldwide,  versus about 91% for Windows. 


     


    This makes me sad.

  • Reply 8 of 75

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Kevinneal View Post



    eeeekkk is XP still that popular!


     


    That's what I was thinking. It's crazy how a 12 year old OS still has over 1/3rd of the market. I wonder how much it costs Microsoft to support XP till 2014?

  • Reply 9 of 75
    Just as I suspected. Apple is truly doomed. So much about all the braggadocio of a post-PC era. Windows is still the most powerful force in the universe and market share is everything.

    /s
  • Reply 10 of 75
    jd_in_sb wrote: »
    Windows 8 marketshare gains are because it is pre-installed on new Windows PCs. New PC buyers have no choice. The Win8 upgrade paints a different picture. Win8 is no Win7.
    Articles like this annoy the hell outta me. Of course Windows will pull ahead, look at all the various makers of Windows PC and every new one is pre-installed with Win8 (as stated by previous responder). In my opinion you can't adequately compare the two. Compare them separately (one OSX and one for Win) and see how consumers are adapting to the latest version of their respective companies operating system.
  • Reply 11 of 75
    I am partly responsible for the increase in Windows 8 use. I am completely and totally disgusted with this "upgrade". This was the straw that broke the camels back. I am now a Mac user. I have no regrets.
  • Reply 12 of 75
    What's so surprising: apple positioned itself as premium consumer computer, almost abandoned the premium pro segment, and never intended to compete in the enterprise market. The latter 2 may see significant improvements with Cook. At least, I'm hoping.
  • Reply 13 of 75
    "Ok, Ballmer. You can keep your job."
  • Reply 14 of 75


    If this is the worldwide share, doesn't 6.72% share imply quite an impressive increase for OSX? (I vaguely recall that it was around 4% - 5% not too long ago?).

  • Reply 15 of 75
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    kevinneal wrote: »
    eeeekkk is XP still that popular!

    Yep. That's the thing this article misses. The huge number of Windows systems makes it obvious that Windows 8 would pass OS X at some point.

    The interesting thing is that 50% of Macs are running the latest version of the OS - vs only about 10% of Windows machines. Just like the mobile platform where the vast majority of iDevices run iOS 6 vs only a small percentage of Android devices running the latest version.
  • Reply 16 of 75
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    racingbull wrote: »
    What's so surprising: apple positioned itself as premium consumer computer, almost abandoned the premium pro segment, and never intended to compete in the enterprise market. .

    And, yet, Apple's share of the market has been growing for years. I would venture that a large portion of that growth was in the "premium consumer" market.
  • Reply 17 of 75

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post



    The interesting thing is that 50% of Macs are running the latest version of the OS - vs only about 10% of Windows machines. 


    Even more impressively, nearly 100% of the Macs run on an OS released no earlier than June 2009.

  • Reply 18 of 75
    I think Apple had a golden opportunity to take market share from Microsoft when Windows 8 was announced in 2011. If they'd priced the MacBook aggressively I'm sure they could have won over lifelong Windows users who, like me, were unconvinced by the new OS but instead Apple lowered the spec of the MacBook retina range (no IR receiver, no Firewire port, no dedicated graphics card, no optical drive, no user access for hardware upgrades) and raised the price. Not smart.
  • Reply 19 of 75
    blackbook wrote: »
    That's what I was thinking. It's crazy how a 12 year old OS still has over 1/3rd of the market. I wonder how much it costs Microsoft to support XP till 2014?

    I believe MS doesn't support XP anymore, at least update wise.
  • Reply 20 of 75
    zoetmbzoetmb Posts: 2,654member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by esquared View Post





    Articles like this annoy the hell outta me. Of course Windows will pull ahead, look at all the various makers of Windows PC and every new one is pre-installed with Win8 (as stated by previous responder). In my opinion you can't adequately compare the two. Compare them separately (one OSX and one for Win) and see how consumers are adapting to the latest version of their respective companies operating system.


     


    Yes, every new Windows PC is pre-installed with Win8 and every new Mac is pre-installed with OS X.   So the comparison is very fair.    And frankly, I don't care.   I think Apple did better work when they were perceived as costly and elitist than they do now that they've become more of a mass-market company.    I'd much rather have a BMW than a Ford.   Unfortunately, as the PC/Mac market declines, Apple will probably invest far less in their computers and OS X.


     


    Wintel based machines are always going to be ahead of Apple because in an office enterprise environment, where most users don't need a very high quality machine, since they mainly use Word, Excel and Outlook (and maybe Powerpoint), they can still buy Dells and the like for half the price of a Mac.   And I say that even though I think the iMac is an incredible bargain.   The design department might convince management to give them Macs, but everyone else is still using PCs.  And that's where most of the sales are.    My dentist uses Macs and I've walked into some hotel lobbies where it's all Mac because they look nicer, but walk into most enterprises and you still see PCs all over the place. 


     


    Even in a home environment, in spite of the Mac's advantages and inroads with "switchers", if you don't have a big budget for computers, you're going to go with a cheap PC, especially if you want a laptop.    I love my Macs, but when I had to replace my mother's computer (she's in her 80's), I bought her a crappy Dell because I was too cheap to spend the money for a Mac, especially a laptop, for the limited uses she had for the machine, mainly limited to a bit of email and a drop of web surfing.  


     


    But much of this is moot, because especially in a home environment, many (perhaps the majority) of users don't need a computer.   They only used computers because there was no alternative.  But for people who only surf, listen to music, read ebooks, email, text, use Facebook, send Tweets and watch YouTube and the like, a Pad or large-screen smartphone more than serves their needs.    They don't really need a traditional computer.  They never really did - it was always overkill.    

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