Windows 8 saw a slight gain in market share in December 2012, according to NetMarketShare’s recently released statistics.
From a 1.06% market share in November, Windows 8 climbed up to 1.77% by the end of December. That is a 67% jump in market share over the period, but the caveat is that it starts from a very small base.
Despite mixed press about its release, Windows 8 is set to gain significant market share in 2013, especially as PC makers switch over to Windows 8 as the default installed OS on their systems.
The numbers above, by the way, do not include Windows 8 RT. Interestingly, Windows RT claimed 0.01 percent of global market share during the same time period, with the Surface RT making up the lion’s share of such devices.
Some other points of note:
- Windows overall market share saw gains for the first time since February 2012, going from 91.45% to 91.74%
- Windows 7 saw its market share increase from 44.71% to 45.11%.
- Apple saw its share of all desktop Macintoshes fall to 7.07% from 7.3%
The key point here is that, given the relatively large size of the desktop market today vs. the smaller, but fast-growing tablet and smartphone markets, Microsoft faces a medium to long-term challenge, not a short-term one.
Microsoft’s domination on the desktop, particularly with Windows 7 gives it both the resources and time it needs to respond aggressively in the mobile space.
Do you think Microsoft will meet those medium- and long-term challenges?
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