Windows 10 at 2nd Birthday – Market Share is Shockingly Poor

On July 29th, Windows 10 will be celebrating its 2nd birthday. It may not be much of a celebration though as market share figures for the operating system are likely not as high as you might think. In fact you may be shocked at just how low they are.

What are the current Windows 10 market share figures?

Despite a bumpy start, people have generally warmed to Windows 10, however, very few, it appears were brave enough to take the plunge into the new O/S. We reported at the beginning of this month that figures were poor. The market share for Windows 10 had, in the last year, only increased by 5%. Much lower than Microsoft would have hoped. While this in itself is disappointing, those who use Windows 10 may be surprised at just how poorly the O/S is doing.

In an effort to push it’s new operating system, you may recall how Microsoft offered the update for free. In fact they practically shoved it down our throats with constant reminders and rather devious worded update notifications. Any user of Windows 7 or 8 were given the opportunity for 1 whole year, to update for free. You might be surprised at how few actually did this.

The above pie chart from NetMarketShare confirms that the market leader, by a country mile, still remains as Windows 7. Windows 10 while holding a respectable quarter of the market, is currently no where near and considering that figure has only increased by 5% in the last year, it seems people really are happy with windows 7.

Why didn’t people upgrade?

Well as can be seen in the pie chart below. While XP and Windows 8 took a hit, Windows 7 figures still increased. Yes Windows 10 saw the larger increase, however the fact that Windows 7 gained anything at all should be embarrassing to Microsoft.

If we’re taking the maths a step further, it’s actually even more worrying. Windows 7 usage should have dropped as Windows 10 increased as presumably people migrated over. Ever user on 7 who did the upgrade should take one out of one column and put one in the other. That hasn’t happened.

What hasn’t helped is the decline in PC sales in the last 10 years, but even so, PC’s still get replaced.

At this point Microsoft would surely have hoped that Windows 10 was the market leader and it does open up the question, is Windows 10 a failed OS?

Is Windows 10 a failed operating system?

The market share would suggest no, however, it appears it will never reach the heights of 7 or XP. There are certain reasons why it could be considered a failure.

• Despite being offered for FREE for a year, it only has a quarter market share.
• Windows 7 usage has actually held, rather than dropped. Given that the Windows 7 market share has stayed roughly the same throughout the entire time Windows 10 has struggled to reach it’s quarter, this is remarkable.
• Windows 10 should represent itself as being the more attractive option yet it obviously isn’t.
• Microsoft clearly terrified the market with this operating system.

I think we’ll get a better idea on this when Windows 10 hits its 3rd birthday. Even so, do the figures surprise you? I know they did me. Maybe the ghosts of Windows Vista and 8 are still haunting microsofts image.