Windows 8 Market Share Increases to 2.2% in January

[zakislam]

Windows 7 remained in first place with a 44.4 percent share.

Windows 8 Market Share Increases to 2.2% in January : Read more

 

[internetlad]

can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.

How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons to upgrade.

I suppose if all you're doing is internet browsing and email, you don't need much.

 

[dalethepcman]

Microsoft wouldn't have to blame poor performance on anyone if they had metro disabled for non touchscreen devices...

That may have been Balmers plan all along though...

 

[wannabepro]

I hate Windows XP. I realize it may have been great at the time, but we are so far past that now..

In 2003, I imagined 2013 to have stuff like the screens in Halo: Forward Unto Dawn.
(The ones that the kid uses to hack stuff with)

 

[ananke]

yey, 2.2% until they hiked the price from $39.99 to $199. Let me guess, it is going to be still 2.2% Jan next year.
Btw. smooth and beautiful OS. But we are not 2009 anymore, the market is different. MS should go the Apple model - $29.99 OSs every year and develop the Windows Market.

 

[shikamaru31789]

[citation][nom]internetlad[/nom]can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons to upgrade.I suppose if all you're doing is internet browsing and email, you don't need much.[/citation]
I still have XP on my PC. I built this back in 2008, so I stuck with XP instead of getting crappy Vista. I haven't upgraded because there was really no reason to, none of the games I've played on here required Vista/7/8. However, I will be building a new PC later this year to play multi-platform and PC exclusive games that come out over the next few years, so I'll definitely be upgrading since the latest games require Windows 7 or 8.

 

[wannabepro]

[citation][nom]shikamaru31789[/nom]I still have XP on my PC. I built this back in 2008, so I stuck with XP instead of getting crappy Vista. I haven't upgraded because there was really no reason to, none of the games I've played on here required Vista/7/8. However, I will be building a new PC later this year to play multi-platform and PC exclusive games that come out over the next few years, so I'll definitely be upgrading since the latest games require Windows 7 or 8.[/citation]

Vista with Service Pack 2 wasn't half bad.. It was a bit slower but meh, I'll take it with the added graphical goodness.. We don't make high-power rigs just to run software from 2001..

 

[A Bad Day]

[citation][nom]internetlad[/nom]can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons to upgrade.I suppose if all you're doing is internet browsing and email, you don't need much.[/citation]

A lot of businesses and public buildings (schools, police stations, hospitals etc) still use Windows xp.

Either they lack the funding for new computers, or there's no incentive to upgrade.

 

[InvalidError]

[citation][nom]internetlad[/nom]can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons to upgrade.[/citation]
It also has a compelling $80 reason not to upgrade: sticking to XP costs nothing while legit upgrades cost $80-150.

My biggest pet peeve with Win8: no option to disable "Always on top" for the taskbar. Unfortunately, this option is also missing from Win7 so I would have to downgrade to Vista to get it back... but then I would lose USB3 support.

 

[Ragnar-Kon]

[citation][nom]internetlad[/nom]can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP. How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard?[/citation]
They plan to cling to it as long as it continues to work.

The Bank of America trading floor in New York City for example... they make millions of dollars every making trades off of 6-screen systems running Windows XP. Why bother upgrading the entire trading floor (100+ machines) to Windows 7 when it won't make Bank of America any more money than what they are already making from Windows XP.

And that's the problem, for some people there is a compelling reason to upgrade. For other people, especially businesses, there isn't a compelling reason. You gotta be able to justify the cost.
[citation][nom]ananke[/nom]MS should go the Apple model - $29.99 OSs every year and develop the Windows Market.[/citation]
MS can't do that. Apple makes money off of the customer by selling them hardware, so they can afford to sell people their software for cheap. Microsoft is a software company, they don't make any money off the hardware when people buy their Dells and HPs. That money goes to Dell and HP.

 

[Neverdyne]

Many of those Windows XP users are work computers that are set up for specific functions and don't really need to be upgraded. They aren't connected to the internet or used to make documents, they simply run one program and do one function inside the company. I've seen many like these all over.

For example, I just saw a Windows XP computer being used as a data logger on a hydroelectric plant. The sole function of the computer is to log some measurements using a custom program made specifically for that when the plant was created. Why should they upgrade such a machine to Windows 7/8? It would be a massive cost with no benefit at all.

 

[bison88]

Windows 8 rises
Windows 7 drops
Windows XP RISES

What kind of bizzaro world is this lol? Only thing that makes sense is Windows Vista dropping.

 

[Guest]

Using the Metro interface is really not that hard. I switched 3 weeks ago and see absolutely no reason to switch back to Windows 7.

 

[rds1220]

Windows 7 continued its dominance in first place with a 44.4 percent share

Enough said right there. Windows 7 was and is still a great OS. No need for such a sudden change.

Windows 8's poor start in the market has seen Microsoft placing the blame on PC vendors for not launching enough compelling touchscreen tablets powered by the platform.

Nice try Microsoft but no one is buying that. Windows 8 poor start is because Windows 8 is crap. It has nothing to to with the big box OEMs.

 

[SteelCity1981]

Wndows XP an 11 year old OS is rising in market share. You couldn't make this stuff up and make it sound believeable if you tried. lol It just goes to show you that the avg consumer is perfectly happy with an 12 years OS.

 

[DRosencraft]

Here's the problem with the theories of why XP is so high - they don't explain the fact that it is RISING in share. If it stayed relatively stable, that would make sense. But the effort that goes into searching out XP to use it strikes me as taking too much effort to look for an old OS, especially for what would be system builders who one would imagine would have need for the advancements from XP to 7.

 

[Guest]

What I think is funny.
Most people still don't get it. XP is still 2x faster than win 7.
Just all the die hard fan boys that have no clue scream the Bloated OS is faster and better.
Well that is debatable, but.. they do have one thing right higher versions of winblowzz do support higher versions of Dirrect-X ... well that is arguably better, but than again people are looking to the better standard. Open-GL.

Nuff rambling.. ( back to my speedy XP system.

 

[jimmysmitty]

[citation][nom]shikamaru31789[/nom]I still have XP on my PC. I built this back in 2008, so I stuck with XP instead of getting crappy Vista. I haven't upgraded because there was really no reason to, none of the games I've played on here required Vista/7/8. However, I will be building a new PC later this year to play multi-platform and PC exclusive games that come out over the next few years, so I'll definitely be upgrading since the latest games require Windows 7 or 8.[/citation]

The main thing is that XP is archaic in PC terms. It was not built for the hardware you have. I had Vista on a C2Q with 4GB and a HD4870/HD5870 and it was great. 7 is better though by a good amount.

8 on the other hand is very nice. I do use the DT mostly but to open apps I hit the Start button on my keyboard and just type which is nice. Also file transfers are much faster than 7 and more consistent. As well the Task manager and file transfer app are much better an detailed.

I suggest 8 as it is a decent OS and if you miss the Start button, get an app for it. If not it works just as well as if not better than 7.

 

[juan83]

If i want to use a fancy graphic desktop i use linux as i do EVERY DAY, else, i use windows xp. Why? because windows 7,8,9,10....99 can't get this graphic effects using less than 400mb of ram, and as you can see, linux + windows xp running on a virtual machine requires only 1.2gb, and windows xp alone less than 400mb.

http://i50.tinypic.com/20gmaue.jpg

for all who don't have a dx11 capable graphic, xp is more than enough, steady, and reliable. it's a petty that some games won't run in this older windows, but i can't find a single person who tell me a good reason to upgrade to win 7, other than "win 7 it's cool... xp is a 10 years old OS... the windows are so lame in 2D" come on!!

 

[darkavenger123]

Did that 2.2% count into me reverting from Windows 8 back to Windows 7? Make that 2.1999999999999%.

There i have just corrected the statistic.

 

[darkavenger123]

[citation][nom]juan83[/nom]If i want to use a fancy graphic desktop i use linux as i do EVERY DAY, else, i use windows xp. Why? because windows 7,8,9,10....99 can't get this graphic effects using less than 400mb of ram, and as you can see, linux + windows xp running on a virtual machine requires only 1.2gb, and windows xp alone less than 400mb.http://i50.tinypic.com/20gmaue.jpgfor all who don't have a dx11 capable graphic, xp is more than enough, steady, and reliable. it's a petty that some games won't run in this older windows, but i can't find a single person who tell me a good reason to upgrade to win 7, other than "win 7 it's cool... xp is a 10 years old OS... the windows are so lame in 2D" come on!![/citation]

I give you a very good reason. Make that a few:
1) 64-bit Win XP sucks. You need Windows 7 64-bit to make use of all those cheap RAMs over 4GB.
2) XP is long dead with no updates or upgrades.
3) Yes, i do want to play DX11 games. Do you want to play PS3 or PS1??
4) Most new hardware not optimized for XP.
5) Lots of new apps does not work with XP.
6) New tech like RST, SRT ...does it works with XP???
7) Win 7 boots way faster than XP with new hardware and tons of stuff loaded.
8) XP is fugly.

Why the hell do you still wants to stick back to dinosaur OS ???

Btw, i am day 1 adopter of Vista, Win 7. But i Win 8 i have to dump.

 

[besplatan]

Well, now it's official - Windows 8 is a flop. Released just before Xmas shopping, crazy upgrade discounts, hundreds of millions in marketing and still its adoption rate is slower than Vista's was. 2.2% in 3 months, that's 0.73% per month. Even if they can maintain this rate of growth (with upgrade discounts having expired on Feb 1st and Xmas shopping being over), it will take them more than 2 years to reach a measly 20% market share. Realistically, they're looking at 0.5% growth per month, so over 3 years.

Surface RT also failed, with $400 million sunk in marketing, they sold only 600-800k units. Now there are reports that the initial production run for Surface Pro will be only 1 million units, compared to 4 million Surface RTs that Microsoft originally ordered.

All that needs to happen now is for WP8 to fail (fingers crossed!), and Ballmer and the ribbon lady will be out, hopefully along with Metro and the crazy idea that PCs and mobile devices should have the same UI.

 

[juan83]

[citation][nom]darkavenger123[/nom]I give you a very good reason. Make that a few:1) 64-bit Win XP sucks. You need Windows 7 64-bit to make use of all those cheap RAMs over 4GB.2) XP is long dead with no updates or upgrades.3) Yes, i do want to play DX11 games. Do you want to play PS3 or PS1??4) Most new hardware not optimized for XP.5) Lots of new apps does not work with XP.6) New tech like RST, SRT ...does it works with XP???7) Win 7 boots way faster than XP with new hardware and tons of stuff loaded.8) XP is fugly.Why the hell do you still wants to stick back to dinosaur OS ???Btw, i am day 1 adopter of Vista, Win 7. But i Win 8 i have to dump.[/citation]

1- I do use windows xp 64bits and works fine, like 32 bits does. it can address up to 64GB.
2- I boot my computer on xp, let's say once in a month, and i every time i shutdown i have to wait till the f*** updates finish installing. There are updates! who told you there aren't?
3- I don't have a dx11 graphic card.. so.. win 7 (in my case) is useless.
4- software takes advantage of your hw, windows barely does. (even if you use w7, unless you use sw that takes advantage of quicksync, avx, etc.. you are not going to see any difference)
5- you are right, many applications doesn't work with xp, i can get lots of alternatives.. you don't have to marry with one particular.. (i am a linux user and a sw developer, that is no problem to me)
6,7,8 - yes, xp is 12 years old!! all those things.. i don't have it! it doesn't make any difference which OS i use, and the start procedure of windows xp doesn't takes advantage of more than 1 core when win 7 does!!
simply.. i just don't care, the boot selector takes 8 seconds and i was considering rising it to 10 or 12..
but hey! W7 is faster when it is just installed.. in 3 or 4 month takes much longer than xp..

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]internetlad[/nom]can't believe nearly 40 percent of computer users are still stuck on XP.How long do they plan to cling to this now-ancient standard? Windows 7 offers more than enough compelling reasons to upgrade.I suppose if all you're doing is internet browsing and email, you don't need much.[/citation]
Keep in mind that XP was out for some 6 years, and was still heavily sold for the 3 years of Vista. That is 9 years of sales. Considering that windows 7 caught up with it is nothing short of a miracle and speaks as a testament to just how great 7 is. Lets not forget also that XP is the last easily hackable OS that MS released. Not saying that it cannot be done with newer systems, but it is simply much easier with XP. Plus, a lot of specialized software runs only on XP which is used in hospitals, banks, and government buildings. They know the OS is terrible for security, but because there is no new support for the software they rely on to be moved to newer systems, they simply cannot upgrade.

Even the place I work for still sells XP boxes, simply because win7 does not run as smoothly on older boxes with limited amounts of RAM (less than 1GB). However, at some point this summer MS is going to end XP for us, so we will finally be moving up to win7 on all of our machines. It is good as it means less viruses for our clients, but it is bad because we will need more 'high end' boxes to work with and keep up with demand. Such is progress.

At any rate, I use win8 at home, and it works great. I don't see what all the fuss is about. Hopefully Windows Blue will bring a few more features, and add more cross-over between win8, WP8, and xBox, but even as is win8 is good enough for me.

 

[CaedenV]

[citation][nom]hopityjumper[/nom]What I think is funny.Most people still don't get it. XP is still 2x faster than win 7.Just all the die hard fan boys that have no clue scream the Bloated OS is faster and better.Well that is debatable, but.. they do have one thing right higher versions of winblowzz do support higher versions of Dirrect-X ... well that is arguably better, but than again people are looking to the better standard. Open-GL. Nuff rambling.. ( back to my speedy XP system.[/citation]
no, actually, it is not debatable. Windows 7 (and 8 for that matter) is in fact faster than winXP. Go read some reviews. The only place where XP does better is in environments where there are limited amounts of ram (less than 2GB), but if you put XP and 7 on an old Pentium 3, and cram 2GB of ram on it, win7 will win every time (I have done it myself). Same goes for an old P4, or PD, or Celery, or AMD whatever, and the newer the hardware the greater win7 takes advantage of it to increase its lead.

I am not saying that you need to upgrade to win7. There are plenty of justifiable reasons to stick with XP (including 'I subjectively like it better'), but to say that it is faster, or to say that win7 is bloat, is pure ignorance.