Windows XP Hangs onto Share in January
With 64 days remaining until Microsoft officially ends Windows XP support, the aging OS is holding stubbornly onto its market share.
Net Applications.com published its month-end numbers on Feb. 1, showing Windows XP at 29.23 percent share. At a time when users and organizations globally should be jettisoning the operating system, the usage share is actually a very slight increase in Windows XP's 28.98 percent share for the close of 2013.
The Net Applications figures are based on data extracted from visitors to the company's global network of thousands of partner sites.
Windows XP has followed a stair-step pattern in usage drops over the last half year, falling from about 37 percent in June and July to roughly 31 percent from September through November before hitting its current plateau.
Meanwhile, Windows 8/8.1 showed very slight growth to around 10.5 percent share in January, narrowly widening its lead against the "other" category, which includes Apple Macintoshes, Google Chrome OS, Linux and everything else. Other OSes also plateaued from December to January at 9.4 percent.
Posted by Scott Bekker on February 03, 2014