The numbers have come in for global market share for computer operating systems in July of 2011. Microsoft is still king but the distribution of users between versions of Windows is starting to shift. Windows XP has finally fallen below the 50% mark for Windows operating systems currently in use.
Windows is still the number one operating system on the market holding 87.66% of the total market share. The remaining percentage is split between Mac OS X holding 5.59%, Linux holding 0.98%, and the miscellaneous other OS category coming in at 5.77%.
If you break down the 87.66% of the market that Microsoft holds with Windows you see an interesting breakdown. There are essentially three main Windows versions in circulation right now, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Windows XP commands 49.94% of the Windows market. Windows Vista holds a sad 9.24% and Windows 7 now commands 27.87% of overall Windows users. There's a small little percentage of other Windows versions that are still holding onto 0.61% of the market. That's probably your grandmother using the computer you passed along to her, running Windows ME.
July was the first time Windows XP dipped below the 50% mark in terms of percentage of overall Windows users. It's nice to see Windows 7 growing finally. The poor reception of Vista was likely to blame for new users taking their time upgrading from XP to anything else. In fact, the strong support Microsoft has seen for XP is the reason the company is offering extended support for the OS all the way through 2014.
The only thing these new numbers don't indicate is what percentage of business computers are still running XP. As of about a year ago something to the tune of 74% of business machines were running XP. It would be nice to know if Windows 7 is making any headway in that market.
