The figures are in, and Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system is finally getting a bit more traction among desktop and laptops. In fact, it's getting quite a bit of traction over the past month or so.
According to the latest stats from Net Applications, which collects its data from "the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of HitsLink Analytics and SharePost clients," Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 have finally pushed past a 15 percent market share.
That's combined, we should note. Windows 8.1 finally reached a double-digit market share in October (10.92%), whereas Windows 8 (point zero) sat at 5.88 percent.
Compared to the month prior, the combined market share for Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 is up to 16.8 percent—an increase of just around four percent or so from what Net Applications saw for September. Individually, Windows 8 only increased 0.29 percent, whereas the market share for Windows 8.1 jumped up 4.25 percent.
One would think that the growth of Windows 8.1 would have come at the expense of Windows 8, or even previous iterations of Windows. That's somewhat true. According to Net Applications' figures, Windows 7 managed to jump up around one-third of a percent to hit a market share of 53.05% in total. However, Windows Vista's market share dropped a fourth of a percent to 2.82%, and Windows XP's market share plummeted 6.69 percent to 17.18%.
The figures bring up a few question: Namely, are we starting to see the end of the road for Windows XP? And if so, is this the result of businesses converting up to more modern versions of Windows, or are the continued sales of Windows 8 devices—especially around the busy back-to-school season—finally tipping the scale in that operating system's favor?
Going forward, you can likely expect to see Windows 7's overall share start to drop. Microsoft officially stopped selling Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium, and Ultimate licenses to all OEMs yesterday. OEMs can still stuff their systems with Windows 7 Professional, which has at last another year to go before Microsoft flips the switch. We suspect that won't be enough to keep Windows 7's market share afloat.
Windows' market share, in general, dropped a half a percent to 91.5% in October. OS X jumped up a bit more than half a percent and Linux fell just around one-fourth of a percent.