StatCounter has released its monthly OS share report, confirming that Windows 10 reigns supreme on the desktop. Windows 11 also rises, but much less, and still does not reach the levels expected by Microsoft.
The operating system market rarely experiences sudden spikes or significant changes. However, February 2023 was expected to be an exception and has been, reflecting the end of extended support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.
Windows 10 reigns supreme on the computer desktop. Between the global Windows rose 4.39 percentage points in February to 73.2%. This is a massive increase that typically only occurs in the above situations when other versions end their useful life. In fact, Windows 7 falls by almost the same amount, 4.16 points to 5.39%.
Clearly, Windows 10 has picked up on previous Windows 7 users. And for free; because Microsoft servers continue to certify all machines that come to it from older systems, even though the official free upgrade program ended years ago.
As for Windows 8.1, it also falls and covers just over 1%. Windows 8 is left with half (0.52%). The same as Windows XP that is still giving war, we assume in old business computers, with 0.46%. It is clear that these are three residual versions.
Special mention for Windows 11. Its market share is still not taking off and in the last month it increased less than one point to 19.13% among all Windows. Very little considering that all new PCs that hit the market do so and that Microsoft has stopped selling retail licenses for Windows 10.
Microsoft continues to use all kinds of tricks to move users from Windows 10. The well-known “dark patterns” that try to force the upgrade, even if the user is comfortable with Windows 10. To be fair, it must also be said that Microsoft has not stopped evolving /improve Windows 11 since its launch, as we could see yesterday with the release of the “Moments 2” version.
More desktop operating systems
All Windows together occupy 74.14% of the total desktop market share. The alternatives are known and the main one comes from Apple with the macOS to which StatCounter assigns a 15.33% share. You already know that Apple does not license its systems to third parties, so the quota is limited to Mac computers.
The next is linux. A development that still does not occupy the quota that its quality, freedom and gratuity deserve and remains just below 3%. To the data we would have to add another 2.35% of Google’s Chrome OS.
And the world total of operating systems?
All of the above refers to desktop data, but in today’s mobile world there are other developments to mention, according to StatCounter:
In fact, here the big name is Android with 42.99% among the global devices. Added all together, Windows “only” has 29.22%, limited by not having a presence on smartphones, tablets or wearables. Apple’s iOS reaches 17.21%, confirming the enormous level of sales of iPhone mobiles.
