Windows 7 market share tops 10 percent
Windows 7 hit another milestone this past weekend, with the operating system accounting for 1 in 10 computers accessing the Web, according to Net Applications.
Market share for a new Windows release often peaks on a weekend day, when consumer use is highest, then trends down again when the work week begins. Nonetheless, Windows 7 use has been trending quickly upward.
In less than a month on the market, Windows 7 had reached the 4 percent milestone--a level it took Windows Vista some seven months to reach. Windows 7 was launched on October 22.
Microsoft said as part of last week's earnings report that it shipped a record number of copies of Windows during the December quarter. "We are thrilled by the consumer reception to Windows 7 and by business enthusiasm to adopt Windows 7," Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner said in a statement.
Not surprisingly, the highest usage of Windows 7 is in the Redmond, Wash., area, where more than 15 percent of PCs are using the operating system.
One of the key questions, though, is whether Windows 7 will help Microsoft regain market share lost to Apple in recent years. So far, while Windows 7 use has grown quickly, market share for both Microsoft and Apple have remained relatively steady, according to Net Applications. As of January, all Windows versions accounted for 92.02 percent of devices accessing the Web, compared with 5.13 percent market share for the Mac.
In September, ahead of Windows 7's release, Windows had 92.77 percent of the market, compared to 5.12 percent for the Mac.
(Credit:
Net Applications)
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
No, Apple has momentum. People who have used a Windows machine all their adult life are now thinking about getting a Mac for their next computer.
Apple has started some things that will prove to be annoying to users though, but it hasn't hurt them yet. If Apple starts to assume customer loyalty and try to monitize the momentum by doing anything but making good prodcuts they can lose that.
However for now, Apple is going to keep picking up some market share. We shall see if they resist the temptations that MicroSoft gave in to that's costing them now.
Thats because the money they spent and the return on investment is not enough. Plus, they have to divert their attention to google pummeling them at every corner. The momentum has flattened out.
Don't get me wrong I think macs are nice easy to use dependable systems. Apple needs to move serious numbers if they want to really compete against (again according to the sited source for this article) MS with it's 90+%. Apple is doing well for it's self and it's investors but with the closed environment for software and sales they are trying to drain a lake with a teaspoon.
PC users slam them for high prices and then through up HP and Dell models as comparison, but if you look at the interior of the Mac Pro models and the hard drive racks and the memory tray and a hundred other little attention to detail items, you can see they are designed on another level to the standard HP and Dell computers they get compared to.
The majority of Windows computers are sold to the Wal-mart and Best Buy crowd who shop foremost by price and then a distant second by features. To this day I will debate to anyone that 80-90% of consumer purchasers would be able to buy a $399 machine with ubuntu installed on it and never miss having windows at all. If it could surf the web, check email, and play some casual games it would meet 100% of all their needs.
There are something like 1.5-2 billion computers in use worldwide and they just announced they had sold 60 million copies of Windows 7 so far. The May 2009 reports had Interent use at an estimated 1.59 billion computers alone making the total number of computers higher than that. Microsoft would need 150-200 million sales of Windows 7 to even reach 10% and that has not happened yet, by their own reports.
Not arguing the success of Windows 7, I love the OS myself, as much as I am arguing the validity of these market researh reports.
It's the same with sale tracking firms like NPD. As a PC gamer i think the NPD report is next to useless and they collect no data from two of the largest retailers and the two biggest digital distribution services for PC games. Not a very acturate picture of the industry at all in my opinion.
Apple 5.135%
Steve Balmer is sure shaking in his boots from all the users droppping Microsoft products for Apple. NOT!
Maybe CNET should cover the respective products to the percentage of marketshare.
Disclaimer: I use both Windows 7 and OSX - but I recommend OSX to those who ask my advice. Hands down, I still feel it is a better choice.
Also and again not in the vain of hate, your statement is basically saying "those percentages are (a much larger sample size) numbers. Here in the (smaller sample size), OSX enjoys around...". In statistics (granted there are lies darn lies and statistics) my teacher always told me that larger sample sizes are more accurate and useful.
hohoho
step into a small office of 10 people and what you will see?? people are working on PCs. keep multiple that number in a building. Then buildings to buildings!! Good luck!!
or just travel to China and what you would see? full of pirated Windows ;)
"OSX enjoys around a 13.5% market share "! I would think it twice.
There we find the market share for Windows 7 at 7.51% and the total Windows market share (not including Win CE and Mobile of course) at 92.03%, so Win 7 had under 8.2% of the Windows market share for that month.
On the other hand, Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) had 1.79% while the total for Mac OS X is 5.14%, so Snow Leopard has 34.8% of the Mac OS X market share. That's particularly amazing taking into account that Snow Leopard does not run on PowerPC Macs.
So even though Snow Leopard had a head start of a couple of months over Win 7, it is safe to say that Snow Leopard has been far more successful within the Mac community than Windows 7 has been among Windows users. That's a shocking conclusion if you realize that Windows 7 offers much more evident advantages over its predecessors than Snow Leopard does, as most advantages of the latter are behind the scenes so they may go unnoticed by the less technical users.
Areal computer...not an iGimpedPad.
Even more interesting would be the numbers of people who went from Linux or OSX to give Windows 7 a whirl, comparatively small as they may be.
I don?t have the funds nor ego & inclination for a Mac. Everything I require a computer for is well suited to Windows.
My PC let?s me work & game to my satisfaction. The money I save from not buying a Mac allows me to buy more computer accessories, apps & games.
The ?debate? between Windows & Mac is immature time wasting nonsense.
Apple is not even trying to gain a majority market share
which is why they only compete in the low volume ,high profit area of the market or the 1000+$ segment of the market ,it's like comparing BMW to all the Detroit and Japanese manufactures combined !
Market share means nothing , Apple is growing at a scary pace and it's products are consistently rated among the best ,also Macs are the only real Alternative in a M$ only world ,which is a win for us consumers in more ways than one
Apple is not even trying to gain a majority market share
which is why they only compete in the low volume ,high profit area of the market or the 1000+$ segment of the market ,it's like comparing BMW to all the Detroit and Japanese manufactures combined !
Market share means nothing , Apple is growing at a scary pace and it's products are consistently rated among the best ,also Macs are the only real Alternative in a M$ only world ,which is a win for us consumers in more ways than one
I suggest you get Windows XP and save your headache a lot!
Windows XP FTW & Forever!
I dropped support for Vista and 7 due to lousy operating system. I support Windows XP forever for lifetime warranty!
Time to sue Microsoft!
As someone who is about as loyal to my OS as I am to my toaster, I can honestly say I just don't get consumer OS fanboyism.
Use whatever fits your own needs best. Who cares what other people are using! Life's too short. Let developers, investors and the like worry about market share.
- by hawkeye_a February 3, 2010 8:31 PM PST
- Windows has more market share than the Mac ? Noway.... i'll bet your going to tell me that more people drive Toyotas/Hyundais than BMW/Merc, or that more people eat at McDonalds than a 'real' restaurant, or that more people fly coach than in first-class, or that...... well you get the idea.
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- by andacar February 8, 2010 8:57 PM PST
- This argument makes no sense whatsoever. What are you trying to say? Obviously more people buy Toyota than BMW, that's why we say Toyota has more "market share." Profitable quarters have nothing whatsoever to do with it. I could turn that "statistic" around and point out that Dell and Microsoft were selling far more stuff while making a loss than Apple was making a gain. Meaningless.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (54 Comments)Also, i guess it's just my imagination that Apple just had it's most profitable quarter ever... in a recession, while Microsoft, Dell,. etc....were laying off workers and cutting profits.
Now if only those 90% were willing to pay a bit more for the third-rate products they buy, maybe Ballmer could afford to keep his job this year. lol
Enjoy your Toyotas/Hyundais ! :)