Amid all the Windows 10 hype and the Windows 7 market share news, it’s worth keeping an eye on how Windows 8 is doing. More so, how many users are still on that platform.
And why.
Statistics reveal that Windows 8 users are steadily jumping ship.
Microsoft launched this modern version of Windows to much fanfare (almost comparable to the launch party of Windows 95 back in the days) in October 2012, but only a few users upgraded from Windows XP and Windows 7 to Windows 8.
Things picked up pace until the debut of Windows 8.1 in October 2013, after which the market share of the core Windows 8 fell down — to Windows Vista levels.
And market share data provided by StatCounter reveals that the platform has lost almost half its users in the past 12 months, while Windows 8.1 has pretty much tripled its user base in this timeframe:
Windows 8 had a market share of 7.81% in April 2014, but the operating system gradually started losing users and ended up with 5.42% in November 2014.
Of course, many upgraded to Windows 8.1.
As a result the platform is now powering only 3.99% of PCs across the globe, resulting in a decline of around 3.82% in the past year.
This decline is set to continue in the coming months, judging by the trend, as Microsoft continues work on Windows 10, which is set to be offered free of charge to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users once the new operating system debuts later this summer.
Will be interesting how many users keep running Windows 8 after that.
And why.
All Comments
What a strange headline. Of course lots of people have upgraded from 8 to 8.1. Just as people did in the days of XP when Service Packs came out. What’s the actual point of separating 8 and 8.1 in these stats?
To determine fragmentation, I guess. That’s probably why almost all the market share providers have provided separate numbers for Windows 8 and 8.1.
Are they shutting down?
In many ways, I prefer Windows 8, especially on a Atom tablet or netbook, where the OS overhead is much lighter than 8.1. The way Microsoft upgraded 8 to 8.1 you don’t have a choice, especially the issues with IE 10.
Yeah, I guess that’s why a lot of people still are rocking Windows 8. Fingers crossed Windows 10 alleviates these problems on lower end hardware, but we have a wait on our hands to find out.
I do prefer 8.1 Update 1. I think that should have been 8 from the beginning, maybe with a few less default tiles on start screen. But of course 8 goes down if more people have 8.1
I’ve seen a lot of people use third-party Start Menu programs on Windows 8.1, and that actually solves the majority of the issues that these users had on the base Windows 8. But you’re right, it should have been this way from the beginning.
I’ve seen people use those. I’ve seen people go back to 7. I’d say at a minimum 80% of those people were still barely using the start menu. They weren’t using it anywhere close to how much they complained. Honestly the only thing I missed was menus and shortcuts
Aye, same!
I don’t even use it as much as I thought I did