Windows 8 install base surpasses Vista, still trails all Mac OS X installs

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Coming off of a relatively strong month, Microsoft's Windows 8 has surpassed the much-maligned ? and six-year-old ? Windows Vista inWeb usage, though slow uptake of the new system means that it still lags behind the total install base of Apple's OS X.

install
via NetMarketShare.


Windows 8 gained 0.83 points of share over the month of June, according to the newest figures from NetMarketShare. That was enough to boost Microsoft's latest OS to a 5.1 percent share of the worldwide PC market, moving it ahead of Windows Vista, which fell 0.48 percent over the same period to a 4.62 percent share.

Windows 7, which surpassed Windows XP's install base in 2011, also dropped 0.48 points in June, ending the month with a 44.37 percent share. Even 12 years after its release, 37.17 percent of computers are running Windows XP.

At just over five percent of the market, Windows 8 has a greater share than any individual version of Mac OS X. The whole OS X install base, though, beats out Microsoft's struggling new OS by two percentage points, 7.2 percent to 5.1 percent.

Total web usage of Apple's OS X passed Windows Vista in September of last year.

Microsoft intended for the latest version of its operating system to reverse a trend that has seen consumers opting for smartphones and tablets instead of traditional PC form factors. Windows 8 was also meant to give Microsoft and its manufacturing partners a foothold in a mobile device segment dominated by Apple on the tablet end.

To that end, Microsoft sank hundreds of millions of dollars into the marketing for the launch of Windows 8, showing off the touch-centric interface along with a range of new hardware form factors blending mobile devices and traditional computers. The software giant touted strong pre-sales ahead of Windows 8's launch, and earlier this year Microsoft noted that it had sold 100 million licenses to date.

Those sales, though, appear to have been largely to manufacturers and not necessarily through to actual customers. The PC market has continued to struggle since Windows 8's launch, with some manufacturers going so far as to blame Microsoft's markedly different interface for driving away consumers.

The Redmond software giant has since sought to breathe new life into its struggling OS. In a considerable reversal, Microsoft recently showed off Windows 8.1, an update to the OS that brings back some features users requested. The new version will even give users the option to bypass Microsoft's "modern UI" entirely, booting directly to the desktop that so many grew accustomed to.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 74
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    37% of the, what, world? is using a twelve year old OS. :no:
  • Reply 2 of 74
    conrailconrail Posts: 489member


    I wonder what was the highest percentage Vista ever achieved? 

  • Reply 3 of 74
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post



    37% of the, what, world? is using a twelve year old OS. image


     


    And that's exactly why I predicted a long time ago that Windows 8 wouldn't do so great, because much of the Windows customer base is not cutting edge, and these kind of people are not the kind of people that are going to adopt a brand new OS that is built around touch. 


     


    And many businesses still run XP. My girlfriend recently brought home some horrible, disgusting little netbook given to her by her work (financial institution) to use at home, and it was running XP.

  • Reply 4 of 74
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    "Windows 8 install base surpasses Vista"

    "install base"?
    Really?
    Really!?
  • Reply 5 of 74
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    desuserign wrote: »
    "install base"?
    Really?

    Are you pretending to have never heard this phrase before?
  • Reply 6 of 74
    mikejonesmikejones Posts: 323member


    "though slow uptake of the new system means that it still lags behind the total install base of Apple's OS X."


     


    Which hardly seems to be a fair comparison since that's the combination of 3 versions of OS X against a single version of Windows. Really having to stretch things with that line, eh? Seems to be more apt to say that both Vista and Windows 8 have more market share than any single version of OS X.

  • Reply 7 of 74
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Hey I installed 8.1 and it sucks just as much.
  • Reply 8 of 74
    mikejonesmikejones Posts: 323member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post



    37% of the, what, world? is using a twelve year old OS. image


    When two of the last three versions of Windows have been turds that seems to be a logical thing to do.  Why upgrade when you get nothing decent for either your money or the effort expended?  At least on balance, every version of OS X has more benefits than drawbacks by far.

  • Reply 9 of 74
    Pretty soon Windows 8 will surpass Max OS 10.x O.o
  • Reply 10 of 74
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    "Are you pretending to have never heard this phrase before?"

    No. I've heard this relatively new corruption of the term, "installed base" far too much lately. That's, why I point it out.
    Are you one of the converted, who has come to accept "install base" as "the new normal?" Do you also use "orientated" and "irregardless?"
  • Reply 11 of 74
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    mikejones wrote: »
    <span style="color:rgb(24,24,24);font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;line-height:18.1875px;">"though slow uptake of the new system means that it still lags behind the total install base of Apple's OS X."</span>


    Which hardly seems to be a fair comparison since that's the combination of 3 versions of OS X against a single version of Windows. Really having to stretch things with that line, eh? Seems to be more apt to say that both Vista and Windows 8 have more market share than any single version of OS X.

    "But Apple's point releases are just glorified Service Packs!"
  • Reply 12 of 74
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    desuserign wrote: »
    No. I've heard this relatively new corruption of the term, "installed base" far too much lately. That's, why I point it out.
    Are you one of the converted, who has come to accept "install base" as "the new normal?" Do you also use "orientated" and "irregardless?"

    I still hyphenate 'e-mail'. That doesn't make 'email' wrong. I'll never use it, but... :lol:
  • Reply 13 of 74


    Apple Insider really needs to be careful with articles like this. If you want to compare combined total, shouldn't you really compare the combined total of both? Even at this rate it won't be that long before windows 8.x passes to combined total of osx 10.x.

  • Reply 14 of 74
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    I still hyphenate 'e-mail'. That doesn't make 'email' wrong. I'll never use it, but... :lol:

    Isn't "internet" supposed to be capitalized too?
  • Reply 15 of 74
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    sam wagner wrote: »
    Apple Insider really needs to be careful with articles like this. If you want to compare combined total, shouldn't you really compare the combined total of both? Even at this rate it won't be that long before windows 8.x passes to combined total of osx 10.x.

    It's not separating 8 from 8.1.

    Also, how many Macs are running a 12 year old OS?
  • Reply 16 of 74
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    I still run XP! Glad to know I'm in good company.

    I use it for only one thing: connecting to a web site I myself created, and thus manage the security of. My way of doing IE7 testing, making sure my web creations play nice.

    Eventually I'll get either Windows 8 or 9. No hurry...

    ("install base"??? That's downright illiterate. How about all the products--imitating Nintendo's poor translation skills--that use "Advance" which means "early" instead of "Advance[B]d[/B]" which means "the latest capabilities"? Ugh.)
  • Reply 17 of 74
    pendergastpendergast Posts: 1,358member
    desuserign wrote: »
    "Are you pretending to have never heard this phrase before?"

    No. I've heard this relatively new corruption of the term, "installed base" far too much lately. That's, why I point it out.
    Are you one of the converted, who has come to accept "install base" as "the new normal?" Do you also use "orientated" and "irregardless?"

    Oh come off of it. English is an evolving language, and both are commony accepted. I've always read it a shortened form "of Installation Base", as in how many Windows installations there were.

    Also, "orientated" is British and is a word.
  • Reply 18 of 74
    mikejonesmikejones Posts: 323member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Pendergast View Post





    Isn't "internet" supposed to be capitalized too?


    Depends. You can have an "internet" that is just a couple of private networks combined together and then there is The Internet which is the global network of networks.

  • Reply 19 of 74
    desuserigndesuserign Posts: 1,316member
    "I still hyphenate 'e-mail'. That doesn't make 'email' wrong. I'll never use it, but... "

    "R u cres? OMG!"

    Not "wrong" either, but it would be moronic to use them in reportage and still hope to be taken seriously. Or is AI gonzo journalism now? If so, that's big failure.
  • Reply 20 of 74

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Pendergast View Post

    Also, how many Macs are running a 12 year old OS?


    Good question.  And it makes me wonder if those PCs running a 12yo OS are themselves at least 12yo?  My guess is very few.  In other words, PC users are probably disproportionately installing old OS's on new computers, whilst Mac users are installing new OS's on old computers.  (Yes, I know there were a lot of computers that got XP installed on them back in the day, but I doubt that hardware has been as long-lived as the legacy software needs, so that the CPUs got replaced, and had the old software intalled on them over top of a newer OS.)

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