Windows 8, Microsoft's newest operating system for PCs and mobile devices, continued its growth even as that of Windows Vista fell below five percent, a tech site reported Monday.
The Next Web cited market share data from Net Applications showing Windows 8 posted "decent" growth in March, while Windows 7 posted minor growth.
"March 2013 was a decent one for Windows 8, which gained 0.52 percentage
points (from 2.79 percent to 3.31 percent) while Windows 7 regained
0.18 percentage points (from 44.55 percent to 44.73) after gaining just
0.07 percentage points the previous month, and losing a sizeable 0.63
percentage points the month before," it said.
It said this means Windows 8 may not be growing as quickly as some hoped, though "all three months in 2013 so far have seen smaller gains."
On the other hand, it said Windows 7 declined in January 2013, the first time since Microsoft released it in 2009, though it has been slowly regaining share.
Windows Blue
The Next Web said the sales slowdown for Windows 8 may be partly due to the expiration of a $15 upgrade deal last February.
"Microsoft will have to rely on students taking advantage of the $70 price tag to spur sales and of course on OEMs luring in new customers with unique hardware propositions," it said.
But another potential challenge for Windows 8 is the anticipated next-generation OS Windows Blue, which may be released before end-2013.
Vista, XP down
As for the much-criticized Vista, its share went down from 5.17 percent to 4.99 percent - after falling below the 10-percent mark as early as July 2011.
Meanwhile, its immediate predecessor Windows XP lost 1.26 percentage points, from 38.99 percent to 37.73. Microsoft had been discouraging people from continuing to use XP.
OSX, Linux losses
The Next Web said that between February and March, Windows gained 0.27 percentage points from 91.62 percent to 91.89 percent at the expense of Mac OS X and Linux.
OS X's share fell 0.23 percentage points to 6.94 percent while Linux's fell 0.04 percentage point to 1.17 percent. — TJD, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
