But what of XP? While Microsoft will be encouraged that its hold on the market is being chipped away at and it's ironic that for all the marketing dollars the firm spends, it's effectively in competition with itself here the hard fact is that it remains dominant in the market. Even if it sheds market share at a rate of 10 per cent a year to Windows 7, the two are a couple of years away from crossing, and it seems a long way off now particularly with Windows 7 take-up slowing slightly before XP won't have a strong foothold in operating system usage.
It should certainly comfortably celebrate its tenth birthday this autumn as comfortably the market leader, and comfortably the most successful and long-lasting product that Microsoft itself has put out.
Because for the best part of a decade, it's been untouchable in the operating system marketplace, with no competitor able to do anything to tackle its dominance. Right now, the problem for Microsoft is it itself is included among those who continue to fail to do so...
