Windows 8.1 is almost here, with the public preview of the upcoming fresh of the world’s most popular operating system set to be unveiled next month at the BUILD developer conference.
It goes without saying that Microsoft would like to see as high a market share for Windows 8 by the time the event rolls around — Windows 8 overtaking Windows Vista would be a very good starting point.
And according to the latest statistics provided by StatCounter, while the overall adoption numbers of the new operating system are lowly increasing, it finds itself near the market share of Windows Vista, the out of favor OS released in 2006.
The first three weeks of the month did not change the overall picture, according to the market research firm, with the overall operating system rankings staying the same.
Windows 7 is still leading the charts with a nifty 53.74 percent of the worldwide market.
The company’s latest operating system has now reached a 5.25 percent share, as it inches closer to Windows Vista and its 5.84 percent market share.
Around 21.2 percent of the (connected) computers worldwide are still powered by Windows XP, despite Redmond’s best efforts to convince users and businesses to move away from the old operating system.
It remains to be seen what kind of an impact Windows 8.1 has on the numbers of Windows 8 after it reaches general availability. And more importantly whether the upgrade will get a separate field of its very own in these statistical counts or be placed alongside Windows 8.
We shall know soon enough — mere months remain now.
That statistic shouldn’t mount O.S. X as 1 O.S. Windows 8 still outsells the most popular O.S. X version, O.S. X Mountain-Lion.
They are being specific about windows, but if they were gonna be specific with mac, they gotta be specific with Linux and iOS too.