Windows 8.1 Finally Passes Windows 8 In Market Share

An anonymous reader writes "May was the seventh full month of availability for Microsoft's latest operating system version: Windows 8.1 continues to grow slowly while Windows 8 remains largely flat, allowing the former to finally pass the latter in market share. At the same time, Windows 7 has managed to climb back over the 50 percent mark, while Windows XP still has more than 25 percent of the pie, despite support for the ancient OS finally ending in April."

Comments

12.64 percent in only 17 months

[symbolset]

It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[rubycodez]

will take more than a start button to fix windows 8.x

that's like putting parsley garnish on a dish full of shit

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, from a structural standing, Windows 8 is fine, even better than the ones that came before.

It's the UI they changed.

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[Penguinisto]

It is a shame the next update still won't have the promised start menu.

Yeah, but funny as hell that, combined, Windows 8.x (all versions) is only ~25% after three years (a complete tech cycle in the consumer realm). It's doubly funny that this is in spite of every bix-box OEM pimping 8.x as hard as they friggin' can (go ahead and try to buy a laptop in BestBuy or Wal-Mart with something other than Windows 8 in it...)

Now compare that crappy growth curve to XP, 98, 95...

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[Anonymous Coward]

For the majority of users the OS is the UI.

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[Jmstuckman]

Three years used to be a complete tech cycle in the consumer realm -- back in the 90s and early 2000s -- but the average consumer no longer upgrades their computer nearly that often. Most of my friends are still using 5-7 year old hardware, because the hardware from that era is still perfectly capable of running today's software. Your techie friends may upgrade every three years, but nobody else does.

The vast majority of consumers only upgrade their OS when they buy a new system. The lack of uptake of Windows 8 is simply because not that many people have replaced their computer in the last few years. Unfortunately, a lot of the hardware from the 2004-2005 era (the first generation of systems to take DDR2 RAM) is still floating around. Because these systems shipped with XP, they are still running XP, and we now have a problem on our hands.

Compare the Windows 8 growth curve to XP? That 9-year-old hardware from 2005 is still perfectly adequate for most tasks. On the other hand, using a PC from 1992 when XP came out in 2001 would have been impossible (unless you were rich, that computer would have had a 386 CPU and a hard drive with less than 100MB!)

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[Beck_Neard]

You mean 40% of servers, 96% of supercomputers, and 80% of smartphones/tablets?

Linux may have started out as a desktop OS, but now it's very much a server/enterprise/workstation (am I allowed to use that word anymore?) OS. Oh, and also embedded devices and phones (really, everything except the desktop). Turns out, the average person who buys a PC is going to use the OS the computer ships with and will never upgrade.

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[0123456]

And who, exactly, wants a touchscreen on a laptop? Touchscreens are a crappy interface for devices too crappy to include a keyboard and mouse.

Re:12.64 percent in only 17 months

[reboot246]

Windows 8.1 beating 8.0 is like a polished turd beating the original turd. It's still a turd.

Maybe 9 will be better . . .

dont want it

[Anonymous Coward]

i dont want 8.1 if it means signing up with fucking microsoft/windowslive id to get it, fuck off

Sorry, that's me

[BoberFett]

I turn on my Windows XP box every other day just to mess with the statistics.

Actually it's because I still have my homemade porn on it, I haven't moved it to my new computer yet...