Windows 8 made some more gains in the overall PC operating system market share in February, but the overall progress of Microsoft"s latest Windows OS continues to be slow. Net Applications shows that worldwide, Windows 8 was installed on 2.79 percent of all PCs last month.
Those updated numbers are an improvement from January where Windows 8 had 2.36 percent of the PC OS market share. Net Applications actually breaks down Windows 8 in three parts; Windows 8 at 2.67 percent, Windows 8 Touch at 0.10 percent and Windows RT Touch at 0.02 percent. The good news? February"s numbers show that Windows 8 is installed on more PCs than the current Mac OS version, 10.8, which claimed 2.61 percent of the market share.
Windows 7 is still the most popular PC OS in the world, with 44.55 percent, a slight gain from 44.48 percent in January. Windows XP continues its decline worldwide. Net Applications shows it claimed 38.99 percent of the PC OS share, down from 39.51 in January. Windows Vista is also still sliding; it had 5.17 percent of the market share in February, down from 5.24 in January.
So what does this data actually mean? Windows 8 PCs have been on sale for the last four months, but the period of time that Microsoft gave for relatively cheap upgrades for older PCs is officially over. It remains to be seen if the general public will finally embrace Windows 8 as they purchase new PCs.
Source: Net Applications | Image via Net Applications