- Oct 15, 2013
- 501
Windows XP's disappearance and Windows 8's march toward some kind of success were both put on hold in January, after a December when the former's user share plunged and the latter's swelled, a Web analytics company said Saturday.
Neither are good signs for Microsoft, which has bet the future on Windows 8 and is coming close to begging customers to abandon the creaky Windows XP.
According to Aliso Viejo, Calif. company Net Applications, Windows XP increased its share by a quarter of a percentage point in January, ending the month at 29.2% of all desktop and notebook computers worldwide, the first time it had meaningful growth since March 2012.
Neither are good signs for Microsoft, which has bet the future on Windows 8 and is coming close to begging customers to abandon the creaky Windows XP.
According to Aliso Viejo, Calif. company Net Applications, Windows XP increased its share by a quarter of a percentage point in January, ending the month at 29.2% of all desktop and notebook computers worldwide, the first time it had meaningful growth since March 2012.
Read more: http://www.computerworld.in/news/users-postpone-ditch-xp-decision-as-windows-8-runs-to-stay-in-placeThe 13-year-old operating system accounted for nearly a third -- 32% -- of Windows-powered PCs.
Windows XP's increase in user share, a rough measurement of what fraction of the world's computer owners run a specific operating system, had to be a disappointment in Redmond, Wash., headquarters of Microsoft.
The technology giant has relentlessly warned customers that they need to get off XP before it's retired from security support on April 8, 2014. Although at times the messages have been heard -- in December, Windows XP's user share fell 2.2 percentage points, or nine times more than in January -- the stall last month was reminiscent of a pause in October after the OS plummeted by nearly 6 percentage points in the two months prior.
Because of the unexpected respite in XP's decline, Computerworld now forecasts that the OS will power about 27% of all personal computers at the end of April, and nearly 30% of those running one flavor or another of Windows.
Unless Windows XP restarts a dramatic decline, the operating system will still be powering one in five personal computers at the end of 2014.