Windows Continues To Lose Desktop Market Share After Windows 8.1 Launch

The latest figures from market analytic firm Net Applications suggest that Microsoft’s Windows based operating systems are  continuing to lose ground to Linux, Mac OS and other operating systems. The figures clearly show a sharp drop off of nearly 1% between July and October of which the vast majority of the lost 0.9% went to Linux and Mac OS. In fact Linux gained around 0.31% market share in the same July to October period while Mac OS gained about 0.54%.

While the numbers may seem relatively small in absolute terms such low percentages equate to large numbers. I think what is disturbing from Microsoft’s point of view is that since November 2011 their market share of the desktop market has continually declined, totally a cumulative loss of 1.5% for the 2 year period. Windows 8.1 didn’t even manage to reverse the trend of decline, in fact the figures suggest it accelerated it as the biggest drop off in Windows market share was from July to August, the month when the consumer preview for Windows 8.1 was broadly accessed by the public. Any ground lost by Microsoft is ground gained by Mac OS and Linux. These figures do not even factor in competition from Android or iOS they are just purely desktop operating system market shares.

Image courtesy of Net Applications