Microsoft is hard at work convincing users (particularly businesses) to move away from Windows XP to one of its newer operating systems, and while things were slow to pick up, it seems Redmond’s efforts are finally starting to pay off.
A new report by the wizards over at OPSWAT shows that the market share of Windows XP dropped to 36.2 percent in December. Windows 7 in the meantime saw an increase to 53.8 percent.
The numbers for Windows Vista over there came in at 8.1 percent, enough for it to finish as the third most popular operating system in the world. And rather interestingly, Windows 8 is more than a few leagues away at only 1.3 percent.
One of the more important factors is the rewarding North American market, but things aren’t much different here either — Windows 7 is the top choice with 48.3 percent, Windows XP follows with 37 percent and Windows Vita rakes up some higher numbers with a 13.4 percent market share.
So essentially, Windows XP is losing steam not just in the United States and Canada, but even in the rest of the world people are upgrading to newer versions of Microsoft’s flagship OS.
The latest quarterly report by OPSWAT is in many ways similar to the December 2012 statistics from Net Applications which showed Windows 7 topping the global market with 44.71 percent and Windows XP enjoying a share of 39.82 percent.
How low both these numbers go throughout the year will have a fair say in defining how much success Windows 8 manages to achieve.
