Windows 8 market share surpasses Vista

windows-vistaIt’s official folks, Windows 8 has finally overtaken Vista in terms of overall market share. While this might not exactly be a momentous achievement and Windows 8 adoption rates remain moderate, it does indicate that at least Windows 8 is steadily increasing its market share… a fact that would undoubtedly provide Microsoft with a degree of optimism as the launch of Windows 8.1 draws ever nearer.

Vista, of course, represents Microsoft’s most disastrous operating system ever, a benchmark for failure perhaps? So, now Windows 8 has passed that criterion I guess the Microsoft heavyweights would have breathed a collective sigh of relief. It also means that Vista is destined to retain its infamous rating, at least for the time being… most likely indefinitely.

Windows 8 currently places third among Windows operating systems, although still a long way behind Windows 7 and XP, and 4th in overall market share statistics. Most leading market research companies agree on the new order, although actual percentages do vary.  According to figures provided by StatCounter; Windows 7 remains on top with 55.39%, Windows XP comes in second at 21.3%, Windows 8 is now installed on 5.75% of computers worldwide, and Windows Vista has a market share of 5.44%.

OS market share - statcounter

NetMarketShare confirms the position, but with a quite substantial variance in percentages:

Operating System Market Share
Windows 7        44.37%
Windows XP        37.17%
Mac          7.20%
Windows 8          5.10%
Windows Vista          4.62%

Regardless of the percentage differential it’s obvious that Windows 8 is on an upward course, albeit perhaps a slow and steady climb. What’s the betting on how much longer before it overtakes Mac?

By the way: According to NetMarketShare, Linux currently enjoys a mere 1.28% market share, while StatCounter doesn’t even rate Linux worthy of a separate mention, lumping it in with “Others”… ouch!

Scroll to Top

WHY NOT SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER?

Get great content like this delivered to your inbox!

It's free, convenient, and delivered right to your inbox! We do not spam and we will not share your address. Period!