Microsoft Windows 8 passes one per cent market share

Posted on 3 Dec 2012 at 11:37, by Gareth Halfacree

Adoption of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, which brings with it a smartphone-inspired touch-centric user interface, has been slower than expected, but the company can enjoy its first major milestone for the operating system: it's passed one per cent market share for the first time.

According to statistics gathered by Net Applications, Windows 8 now runs on 1.09 per cent of computers world-wide. The software still has a way to go, however: the last-generation Windows 7 release runs on 44.71 per cent of computers, with the unpopular Windows Vista sitting on 5.7 per cent. The sorely outdated but still popular Windows XP, meanwhile, enjoys 39.82 per cent of the market, with a further 0.13 per cent running even older software like Windows 2000 or Windows 98.

Adding up the figures, it's clear to see that Microsoft still dominates the market: all versions of Windows put together account for a massive 91.45 per cent of the operating system market, with Apple's OS X pushed into second place with a mere 7.3 per cent. The open-source Linux operating system, meanwhile, has just 1.25 per cent of the market.

While adoption of Windows 8 is slower than expected, it is growing - and in one market has already outpaced Apple's rival operating system: gaming. According to Valve's Steam Survey, which analyses computers used to play games through the company's digital distribution service, Windows 8 accounts for 4.69 per cent of systems - higher than OS X, which sits at 3.26 per cent. With most games being released for Windows first, or sometimes exclusively, that's little surprise.