Windows 8 hasn’t been the overwhelming success Microsoft hoped it would be, and some even named the operating system as partially responsible for the decline in PC sales that began in late 2012. Even so, the operating system isn’t a complete flop as evidenced by the latest data from Web tracking site NetMarketShare, indicating that Windows 8 usage has been climbing … albeit very slowly.
The firm’s Web tracker detected an increase in Windows 8 usage, putting the system’s market share for April at 3.84 percent. That’s a teensy bit more than Windows 8’s 3.2 percent share in March, more than 1 percent more than the system’s 2.7 percent share in February, and significantly higher than its 2.26 percent share in January. Windows 8 touchscreen devices are only responsible for 0.02 percent of the 3.84 percent total, so it’s pretty clear that while you already have a number of tablet-laptop hybrids to choose from, they’ve still yet to be embraced by the masses.
While Windows 8’s market share is slowly growing, it pales in comparison to the growth exhibited by crowd favorite Windows 7 within the same time period. From its release in October 2009 up until April 2010, Windows 7 already had a 12 percent market share – that’s a huge chunk of NetMarketShare’s pie chart that continued to balloon until it reached its current share of 44.72 percent. It will be worth monitoring Windows 8’s figures to see if there’ll be any significant changes once Microsoft releases Windows 8.1 (codenamed “Blue”), or when the company’s completely stops supporting Windows XP in 2014.
Internet Explorer 10 also seems to be gaining more users, according to data from the same firm. It now has a 6.02 percent market share, which is a huge leap from March’s 2.93 percent. This could be attributed to the fact that more and more Windows 7 users have been installing the browser since it was made available for the OS in February.
