Three Months After Support Deadline, Windows XP Still No. 2
A full three months after Microsoft cut support for Windows XP, the operating system remains the second most popular operating system throughout most of the world.
If current trendlines continue, Windows XP will hold the No. 2 position for a few more months and could remain a major presence on the Internet for years, according to Internet browsing data kept by the two leading OS share tracking outfits, StatCounter and Net Applications.
The Windows XP overhang looms largest in Net Applications' data, which has more than a quarter of all browsing done in June from the OS (Figure 1). Windows XP had been shedding a point of share or more per month since February, but plateaued from May to June. Net Applications puts Windows 7 share at 50.55 percent and Windows 8 share at 12.54 percent. (Windows 8 figures in this post combine Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, which both StatCounter and Net Applications track separately.)
Figure 1.
Data generated by StatCounter puts XP's global share much lower at 16 percent in June (Figure 2), but it's still good for second place. Windows 8 accounts for more than 14 percent share and could edge Windows XP for the No. 2 spot in the next few months.
[Click on image for larger view.]
Figure 2.
In the United States, Windows 8 already surpassed Windows XP back in April and held that lead through June, when XP share was 14.13 percent and Windows 8 share stood at 14.94 percent, according to StatCounter. However, second place in the United States goes to Mac OS X, which accounts for nearly 16 percent of browsing traffic.
Globally, Mac OS X is much lower, with 8.5 percent of StatCounter share and 6.5 percent of Net Applications share. StatCounter tracks pageviews while Net Applications uses unique visitors, among other differences in their approaches.
Posted by Scott Bekker on July 07, 2014