Analyst: Windows 8 May Not Reach The Penetration Levels Of Windows 7 Or XP

Microsoft is busy preparing Windows 8.1 as part of its companywide Blue initiative. And the software titan has on various occasions, expressed its desire to see a greater Windows 8 adoption before it unleashes the first ever upgrade to its flagship operating system.

The higher the market share of Windows 8, the better Windows 8.1 will be poised for success.

But while Redmond’s latest operating system currently has a worldwide market share slightly upwards of 5 percent, XP is still powering more than 37 percent of the computers worldwide.

And as far as analysts are concerned, most believe that it is highly unlikely that Windows 8 will have the same market penetration as Windows 7 or even Windows XP for a number of reasons.

Talking to CIO Today, Brad Shimmin, a principal analyst at Current Analysis said:

“Windows is still the standard, but it doesn’t look like Windows 8 is going to have the same penetration as Windows XP and Windows 7 had.

It’s still very much a Microsoft world in the enterprise, it’s just an older Microsoft world. I think it proves pretty difficult for Microsoft to modernize its enterprise constituency for two reasons.”

Signs of a changing world, then, it seems.

There are in fact, various reasons, both internal and external, that lend credence to this theory. While the Metro platform as a whole may survive and thrive, Windows version 8 may have a bit of a tough time gathering up the numbers that previous versions of Windows attained.

First and foremost is the assault of various makes of tablets. Secondly the sustained threat of old versions of the operating system (Windows 7, Vista and XP combined). Third and final is the development of Windows 9, which itself is gathering pace.