Windows 10 is killing Windows 7
Windows 10 continues to increase its market share as users upgrade from Windows 7 to Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system.
Data from NetMarketShare shows that Windows 7’s market share has dipped under 30%, while Windows 10 has reached its highest ever market share at 52.38%.
Windows 7’s market share has been declining throughout 2019, but this decline has been more pronounced over the past few months.
A major contributing factor to this is the fact that Microsoft has set the end-of-life deadline for Windows 7 at 14 January 2020.
Windows 7 continues to fall
Continued use of Windows 7 after the end-of-life deadline will leave users exposed to a variety of security vulnerabilities.
For this reason, it is important that Windows 7 user numbers continue to drop – as it indicates that more users are becoming aware they need to upgrade their Windows 7 operating system before January 2020.
NetMarketShare’s statistics show that this upgrade is happening at an accelerated pace.
Windows 7’s market share has dropped by over 2% over the past month, and by over 7% in the second half of 2019.
Meanwhile, Windows 10 has seen substantial gains in market share, up from 50.99% in August to 52.38% in September.
Mac OS X 10.14 also saw surprising market share increases in September, with Apple adding over 1% of the market to its operating system.
Below is how the market share of the top 5 desktop operating systems has changed since March 2019.
| Operating System | March | April | May | June | July | August | September |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 10 | 43.62% | 44.10% | 45.73% | 45.78% | 48.86% | 50.99% | 52.38% |
| Windows 7 | 36.52% | 36.43% | 35.44% | 35.38% | 31.83% | 30.34% | 28.17% |
| Mac OS X 10.14 | 5.40% | 5.23% | 5.34% | 5.31% | 5.38% | 5.95% | 7.15% |
| Windows 8.1 | 4.13% | 4.22% | 3.97% | 4.51% | 5.29% | 4.20% | 3.48% |
| Windows XP | 2.29% | 2.46% | 2.22% | 1.81% | 1.68% | 1.57% | 1.21% |
New Microsoft devices
Microsoft recently launched a series of devices, including its foldable smartphone – the Surface Duo – and the Surface Neo dual-screen laptop.
The Surface Neo will use Microsoft’s new Windows 10X operating system, which is designed specifically to run on dual-screen computing devices.
Windows 10X is essentially a modified version of Windows 10 rather than a completely new operating system, and takes advantage of the Surface Neo’s two displays to allow for superior multitasking.
The Surface Duo foldable smartphone will not use a Microsoft operating system.
Instead, it will be powered by Android – which will allow users to access popular apps such as the Google Play Store and WhatsApp.
Now read: Microsoft wants to bring Surface to South Africa
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