Wednesday, May 6th 2020
Windows 10 Market Share Drops Between March and April
Microsoft's Windows 10 operating system has historically been rising in market share thanks to the slow depreciation of Windows 7 OS, and Microsoft's efforts to push it as only Windows OS available for desktop users. However, according to the information by NetMarketShare, a company providing statistics about the market share of Internet Technologies (browsers and OSes), Windows 10 has seen a decrease in market share. This news is a surprising discovery, given that the OS is expected to be gaining new market share slowly, given that Windows 7 has reached the end of life in January.
From 57.37% of market share in February, Windows 10 got down to 57.34% in March and 56.08% in April. While this may seem just like a few percentage decrease, given the massive amount of PCs available, it can be counted in thousands. What could be the reason behind this is the current COVID-19 related pandemic and slower demand for office PCs, as everyone is working from home now. This was a big growth sector for Windows 10 as the previous version of Windows, the 7, was very popular in office space before its EoL. Of course, this is just a speculation which you should take with a big grain of salt. Some of the interesting things to point out is that Ubuntu, a Linux kernel based operating system, has massively increased its market share from 0.27% in March to 1.89% in April.
Sources:
NetMarketShare, Forbes
From 57.37% of market share in February, Windows 10 got down to 57.34% in March and 56.08% in April. While this may seem just like a few percentage decrease, given the massive amount of PCs available, it can be counted in thousands. What could be the reason behind this is the current COVID-19 related pandemic and slower demand for office PCs, as everyone is working from home now. This was a big growth sector for Windows 10 as the previous version of Windows, the 7, was very popular in office space before its EoL. Of course, this is just a speculation which you should take with a big grain of salt. Some of the interesting things to point out is that Ubuntu, a Linux kernel based operating system, has massively increased its market share from 0.27% in March to 1.89% in April.
53 Comments on Windows 10 Market Share Drops Between March and April
Like so many Covid related numbers, in isolation this is meaningless.
Mac users seems to cling to 32 bit support :
NVM found it. But ehh... where do you see the share increase for 7? I'm looking at a decrease...
There is nothing here that speaks of increased popularity for 7. Everything points at people moving to other OSes non-MS. Or new customers not choosing Windows over any alternative.
I'm not so sure this is anything new, to be honest. The most noteworthy bit might be the increase of Linux share, in a relative sense it exploded. The shift to a more diverse range of OSes at large is not new, despite Windows 10 growth at the cost of 7. The net market share of Microsoft OSes is not necessarily getting bigger.
netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?options=%7B%22filter%22%3A%7B%22%24and%22%3A%5B%7B%22deviceType%22%3A%7B%22%24in%22%3A%5B%22Desktop%2Flaptop%22%5D%7D%7D%5D%7D%2C%22dateLabel%22%3A%22Trend%22%2C%22attributes%22%3A%22share%22%2C%22group%22%3A%22platformVersion%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%7B%22share%22%3A-1%7D%2C%22id%22%3A%22platformsDesktopVersions%22%2C%22dateInterval%22%3A%22Monthly%22%2C%22dateStart%22%3A%222019-05%22%2C%22dateEnd%22%3A%222020-04%22%2C%22plotKeys%22%3A%5B%7B%22platformVersion%22%3A%22Windows%2010%22%7D%2C%7B%22platformVersion%22%3A%22Windows%207%22%7D%2C%7B%22platformVersion%22%3A%22Mac%20OS%20X%2010.14%22%7D%2C%7B%22platformVersion%22%3A%22Windows%208.1%22%7D%2C%7B%22platformVersion%22%3A%22Mac%20OS%20X%2010.15%22%7D%5D%2C%22segments%22%3A%22-1000%22%7D
03.2020 is 26.23%
Down you see Windows 7 is 29.34%.
I mean, you too can obviously see 29,34% and 25,59% are not the same number, so comparing month to month to the number they show below the chart isn't the right comparison.
It'd be pretty strange too, wouldn't it, to have an EOLed OS gain share?
Just exported a CSV for each month and then added the data in Excel (the months totals that don't add up to 100 are probably due to the really low market share of a couple of platforms that need more precision to be measured)
gs.statcounter.com/os-version-market-share/windows/desktop/worldwide
That's the different Windows versions on desktop/laptop devices.
gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide
That's all OSes on desktop/laptop devices.
In the first link Windows 10 is gaining share month to month. In the second link, a small decrease in total Windows version is explained by an increase in MacOS.
With Microsoft, you PAY to get your data collected and sold!
What's worse with M$ is that they SUBSCRIBE you to their stuff. Soon, when Wimdows become well, just Windows, we won't have the chance to opt-out.
Even now the N-versions of Windows still come with ads and pre-installed adware. There will be ads in Notepad, start menu, you name it.
I love it when even the Enterprise versions come with telemetry enabled by default. Why do you think the Chinese govt wanted a customized version of Win?
How else do you expect developers to solve issues? Debug data and crash data. As a programmer myself, small time I may be, I very much understand the necessity of debug data to solve program issues and that’s exactly what that telemetry is.