Market share mayhem
Windows 7 has passed Windows Vista to become the world's second favourite operating system.
New figures from Net Applications found that Windows 7 gained 0.12 percent on its Vista rival, rising from 12.7 to 14.5 percent in one month to July, while the almost nine-year-old Windows XP remains the undisputed champion in terms of market share which has a 61.9 percent market share.
Net Applications gathered information from approximately 160m visits a month to the 40,000 websites it monitors to come up with the results.
Many consumers have snapped up new PCs or upgraded their system since Windows 7 launched in October 2009 to ensure its rising market share. It seems many people replaced their Windows XP software with the new release, resulting in a steep decline for the old OS, but it has not plunged in recent months, with Windows XP only shedding a mere 0.7 percent of market share since May, perhaps hinting users are happy to stick with a reliable old favourite.
In total, the statistics showed Windows in all its various forms commands a whopping 91.3 percent of the market, compared with Mac's 5 percent.
Mac's OS has seen a minimal decline since its market share hit the heady heights of 5.3 percent in March 2010. Some experts believe the hype surrounding windows 7 and subsequent buying frenzy may be partly responsible, although Mac has enjoyed hardware sales growth too.
Linux slipped from 1.07 to 0.93% in a month from July to June 2010. In contrast, the iPhone's iOS gained 0.7 percent, climbing from 0.59 percent in June to 0.7% in July this year, perhaps spurred on by the release of the iPhone 4.
