Windows 7 adoption still dwarfed by XP

The Windows XP operating system has held its own with a 60 per cent market share, according to research by Net Applications.

When Windows 7 was launched a year ago, XP had 70 per cent of the market.

Net Applications has measured the change in the operating system market every month and its September figures have just been published, making interesting reading when looking back at what should have been a stellar year for Windows 7.

The latest Microsoft OS has not yet passed the 25 per cent peak that Vista reached before it started to recede.

With a total distribution of only 17.1 per cent and an adoption rate increase of around 1.25% on last month, the figures have shown there is still some way to go before Windows 7 can be called a success.

Windows XP market share has fallen at less than one per cent every month. Vista is showing a similar but higher decline, however, this has still left it with 13.35 per cent.

This gradual erosion may start to change dramatically towards the end of this month when Windows XP stops being sold. From 22 October all new PCs will have to take Windows Vista or, more likely, Windows 7, and this could signal the beginning of the end for the nine-year old XP.

Examination of OS sales has shown the era of change for change's sake has gone. Looking across the OS research, percentages may vary but trends are still the same.

Figure from StarCounter put Windows 7 at 22 per cent, Vista at 16.6 per cent and XP at 54 per cent.

When Apple Mac OS X and Linux figures were disclosed, there was little change there, too. Linux was only at 0.85 per cent and Apple up at five per cent. The news was better for Apple when its iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod operating system showed it had 1.18 per cent market share.