AfterDawn: News

Windows 8 market share explodes for August

According to the latest market share data from NetApplications, Windows 8 saw its share grow significantly for August.

While still comparatively small, Windows 8 jumped 37 percent, moving from 5.40 percent to 7.41 percent.



Windows 7 jumped from 44.49 percent to 45.63 percent, with the two new operating systems taking share from the extremely aged Windows XP. XP fell to 33.6 percent, over a 10 percent drop from July.

Mac OS X (in all iterations) moved slightly to 7.28 percent.

It is unclear why Windows 8 saw such a large jump for the month, but there is the potential that the large price drops on the Surface tablets had an effect on the OS' share.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Sep 2013 19:18

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• 16 comments

• skeil909

  Back to school? Seems fairly clear to me.

  2.9.2013 19:22 #1

• ivymike

  Back to school and clueless parents who will get their children anything they want without doing their homework first (no pun intended). I'm glad to see XP holding on though.

  2.9.2013 20:42 #2

• ivymike

  Perhaps I'd consider a Surface tablet if Microsoft dropped another $100.00 or so off of the MSRP.

  2.9.2013 20:43 #3

• KillerBug

  I might consider a surface pro if they even tried to compete on the price or the hardware. I might consider a surface RT if it was closer to the price of the Kindle Pro.
  

  
  

  3.9.2013 09:28 #4

• SuckRaven

  Maybe instead of just flat looking at market share, someone might consider looking at how many of those Win8 licenses are on devices used for actual work. I think it's safe to say/assume that a large percentage of those Win8 licenses are on hardware that is for fun or in addition to a regular setup that can actually be productive without all the cluttered UI getting in the way. Some people are attracted to shiny things. Others colors. Still others colored boxes with moving images inside of them. To each his/her own.
  

  SuckRaven

  3.9.2013 10:56 #5

• dEwMe

  Or the fact that if you go to Best Buy and etc you don't really have any other options for a non mac PC. Is there really any easy way for them to get Win7 anymore? Other than the local PC guy?
  

  Just my $0.02,
  
  dEwMe

  3.9.2013 11:44 #6

• aldan

  explosion my ass.more like a wet firecracker.
  

  3.9.2013 21:40 #7

• Interestx

  All carping aside these are pretty much the same stats as collected any other year (with back to school etc having an effect on other OS's).
  
  37% is a big jump (albeit from a much lower base than say 7) & with 7 & 8 now holding over 50% of the market claims of Microsoft at a plateau or in decline or obviously well wide of the mark.
  

  4.9.2013 09:19 #8

• YummyCS

  It doesn't even matter that the OS sucks because all of the major stores pulled Windows 7 machines and even the software itself from their shelves. Its pretty edited by ddp ridiculous you have no option except online to be able to go back to windows 7. I personally know several older women at work that all wanted to buy gifts for their children but only could get windows 8 from stores even though they wanted windows 7. I am using windows 8 and I can't stand this. To run or search for a program that not my favorites, I have to pull up a FULL SCREEN MENU. WORST IDEA EVER. Half the time I have to search for something it is a document that has a unique name I am looking for where I need to look at the spelling so I have to go full screen and back sometimes if copy paste isn't available on the pdf. If they can just get rid of this damn full screen menu it would brighten my day.
  
  Not to mention all of their apps run full screen and require windows logins. Seriously? You think I want to run everything in full screen???? I liked you when I could run multiple items at the same time on the same screen.. If only we had something like that.. oh wait it's called... "WINDOWs" Maybe they need to change their name to "FULLSCREEN"... edited by ddp windows 8.. if i didn't have to have it for my work computer I wouldn't use it at all.

  4.9.2013 14:34 #9

• hearme0

  Originally posted by ivymike: Back to school and clueless parents who will get their children anything they want without doing their homework first (no pun intended). I'm glad to see XP holding on though. Seriously???
  
  "Glad to see XP holding on"?????
  
  Sad!
  
  Perhaps your next hope will be that the Tandy computer makes a comeback.............or maybe the 286 processor
  
  Sheesh!

  4.9.2013 17:25 #10

• SomeBozo

  Originally posted by hearme0: Originally posted by ivymike: Back to school and clueless parents who will get their children anything they want without doing their homework first (no pun intended). I'm glad to see XP holding on though. Seriously???
  
  "Glad to see XP holding on"?????
  
  Sad!
  
  Perhaps your next hope will be that the Tandy computer makes a comeback.............or maybe the 286 processor
  
  Sheesh! I believe XP is still holding on as Vista changed the driver model in wind0ze and effectively made Vista a HUGE co$t to upgrade and people have avoided it mainly for that reason. I know some friends who moonlight doing custom programming and support, they all have a few doctor's and dentist in this very boat. Upgrading to Vista would forced them to dump hardware then really need which is not supported past WinXP, and to get like equipment will be a large expense if possible.
  

  6.9.2013 01:02 #11

• Interestx

  Originally posted by SomeBozo: Originally posted by hearme0: Originally posted by ivymike: Back to school and clueless parents who will get their children anything they want without doing their homework first (no pun intended). I'm glad to see XP holding on though. Seriously???
  
  "Glad to see XP holding on"?????
  
  Sad!
  
  Perhaps your next hope will be that the Tandy computer makes a comeback.............or maybe the 286 processor
  
  Sheesh! I believe XP is still holding on as Vista changed the driver model in wind0ze and effectively made Vista a HUGE co$t to upgrade and people have avoided it mainly for that reason. I know some friends who moonlight doing custom programming and support, they all have a few doctor's and dentist in this very boat. Upgrading to Vista would forced them to dump hardware then really need which is not supported past WinXP, and to get like equipment will be a large expense if possible. So is there any reason why they're not moving to the lighter smaller & more secure 7?
  

  6.9.2013 05:35 #12

• SomeBozo

  Originally posted by Interestx: Originally posted by SomeBozo: Originally posted by hearme0: Originally posted by ivymike: Back to school and clueless parents who will get their children anything they want without doing their homework first (no pun intended). I'm glad to see XP holding on though. Seriously???
  
  "Glad to see XP holding on"?????
  
  Sad!
  
  Perhaps your next hope will be that the Tandy computer makes a comeback.............or maybe the 286 processor
  
  Sheesh! I believe XP is still holding on as Vista changed the driver model in wind0ze and effectively made Vista a HUGE co$t to upgrade and people have avoided it mainly for that reason. I know some friends who moonlight doing custom programming and support, they all have a few doctor's and dentist in this very boat. Upgrading to Vista would forced them to dump hardware then really need which is not supported past WinXP, and to get like equipment will be a large expense if possible. So is there any reason why they're not moving to the lighter smaller & more secure 7? Win 7 uses the same driver model as Vista, so WinXP is where they all need to stay if the people i'm talking about want their software/hardware to remain usable, upgrading is not an option or most of them.
  
  Win 98/NT4 was the first large driver model change from previous OSs and there was as much turmoil back then, but companies back then were willing to provide updates and support their software/hardware as needed, but when Vista hit, either the companies were not around any longer, or had no interest in developing newer drivers just so M$ could get money for an update (which many companies/users felt unjustified).
  
  I might argue the large reason/motivation you see 0ff1ce 365, simply a design that will guarantee a revenue $tream M$. The largest competitor for 0ff1ce a few years ago was 0ff1ce 97, M$ had to find a way to force users to upgrade to ensure M$ still gets a revenue stream, i mean why is it now docx or xlsx, to simply make it a pain for older versions to use, and really what more do then provide that you didn't have already?
  

  6.9.2013 10:42 #13

• SProdigy

  SomeBozo you hit the nail on the head. This same thing was a problem jumping from 98/NT to 2000/XP. I also believe that more legacy technology dropped off from XP to Vista/7 and causes more issues. How many machines offer serial or parallel ports these days? Yet, some of these expensive industrial machines still use barebones tech to communicate with computers.

  6.9.2013 14:37 #14

• toto53

  The reason it has increased is that it is sold on nearly every laptop and PC! My entire family dislikes it, myself included. Now if we are to be reduced to tablets I could see its use for those little devices or possibly for a touch screen laptop (not my choice) but definitely not for PC use. It is a cumbersome annoying product that takes you places that you do not wish to go! So two thumbs down for practicality! Maybe Microsoft will get it right someday by offering two GUI's so that it does not suck so loud! Just Sayin'

  7.9.2013 10:38 #15

• Satviewer2000

  I bought a couple of HP laptops recently (non-touchscreen) and they were pre-installed with Win8. I think if you buy any new Windows laptop or desktop now, you will get Win8. The only way to get Win7 is if you find a local computer shop who can do custom installs, or you could try it yourself IF the new computer even supports Win7 drivers! Some companies such as Sony or Lenovo are not even providing Win7 drivers for their newest models, so you may have no choice but to use Win8. But after a month of pulling my hair out trying to learn Win8, I finally found a cheap and simple solution ... Start8 ... which not only brings back the Start menu but also returns most of the desktop "feel" to a Win7 experience. OK, I know, some will say why should they have to pay more bla bla bla (it's only $4.99 - and no I don't work for Stardock)to get all of this. Well, unfortunately, you do not have much of a choice, even the 8.1 upgrade will not bring back the traditional Start menu. The Start8 is the best compromise. There is a free alternative called "Classic Shell" and I tried it but it's just not as easy to use as Start8, and it doesn't change some of the other annoying things such as the Charm bar.
  

  10.9.2013 21:43 #16