Windows 8 Gaining Market Share

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Slowly but surely, Windows 8 is gaining market share.

For the month of August, Windows 8.1 eked out a 7.09 percent market share based on all the desktop OS traffic seen by Web tracker Net Applications. That number was up slightly from 6.56 percent in July, 6.61 percent in June, and 6.35 percent in May. Still in use among many people, Windows 8 scored 6.28 percent of the market last month.
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Yep. Windows 8 being the only choice when someone goes into BestBuy and wants a windows laptop let's say, well duh Win8 will make a tiny gain when its the only choice.

That "gain' is pathetic and little more than coasting on the inertia of past Windows versions that didn't take customers for granted. The telling statistic is that Windows 7 is consistently holding steady and during many periods since Win8's release was actually gaining share which is unprecedented for Windows when a successive version was already out.
 
DPI said:
Yep. Windows 8 being the only choice when someone goes into BestBuy and wants a windows laptop let's say, well duh Win8 will make a tiny gain when its the only choice.

That "gain' is pathetic and little more than coasting on the inertia of past Windows versions that didn't take customers for granted. The telling statistic is that Windows 7 is consistently holding steady and during many periods since Win8's release was actually gaining share which is unprecedented for Windows when a successive version was already out.
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win7 can be going up because XP is done for and businesses are moving to W7 desktops (and/or home users are purchasing refurb W7 machines).
 
Waiting for the next dozen pages of people complaining about how pathetic the metro UI is and how bad windows 8 sucks. Same old shit from the same old people.
 
Climber said:
Waiting for the next dozen pages of people complaining about how pathetic the metro UI is and how bad windows 8 sucks. Same old shit from the same old people.
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this exactly.

give it 10 years where the same people will be kicking and complaining when MS takes it away.
 
DPI said:
That "gain' is pathetic and little more than coasting on the inertia of past Windows versions that didn't take customers for granted. The telling statistic is that Windows 7 is consistently holding steady and during many periods since Win8's release was actually gaining share which is unprecedented for Windows when a successive version was already out.
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A lot of enterprises are still upgrading to Windows 7 from XP. They were waiting for Windows 8, but found that wasn't going to be an option.

Climber said:
Waiting for the next dozen pages of people complaining about how pathetic the metro UI is and how bad windows 8 sucks. Same old shit from the same old people.
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Any mention of Windows 8 will bring this. "Windows 8 comes in a box". Posts - Metro sucks. ;) The discussion always starts to go that way. A few will be the "Tried it for 5 minutes, went back to Windows 7. WinSeven4Lyfe!"
 
8 + 8.1 has over half the market share of XP now.

Too bad Windows 9 won't be a whole lot longer and 8/8.1 combined may never actually pass XP.
 
Climber said:
Waiting for the next dozen pages of people complaining about how pathetic the metro UI is and how bad windows 8 sucks. Same old shit from the same old people.
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The Metro UI is pathetic and Windows 8 sucks. There. Happy?
 
Climber said:
Waiting for the next dozen pages of people complaining about how pathetic the metro UI is and how bad windows 8 sucks. Same old shit from the same old people.
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Are you calling me old? :)

I hear the same complaints from both technical users and non-techies about how horrible the windows 8/metro UI is. Most of them wish they could have bought their new laptop with windows 7.
I also hear the same complaints about Server 2012.

If Windows 9 looks/works more like the Windows 7 UI, I predict that Window 9 will surpass windows 8 installs within 6 months of it's release.
 
DPI said:
Yep. Windows 8 being the only choice when someone goes into BestBuy and wants a windows laptop let's say, well duh Win8 will make a tiny gain when its the only choice.

That "gain' is pathetic and little more than coasting on the inertia of past Windows versions that didn't take customers for granted. The telling statistic is that Windows 7 is consistently holding steady and during many periods since Win8's release was actually gaining share which is unprecedented for Windows when a successive version was already out.
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True, though even a lot of the average Joe Sixpack types I know are deliberately seeking out computers that either come with Windows 7 or that can be easily reverted to Windows 7. Case in point would be my father in law who just went with a Thinkpad with Windows 7 Pro.
 
My honorary grandfather (really close family friend) just bought an HP all in one last weekend that had 8 on it and the first thing he says to me when I come to help him find where Excel is hiding is "What is this shit? Where did the Windows go?"

I don't think I'd ever heard him swear before in my entire life; I almost got Dr. Pepper all over his new touchscreen it was so hilarious.
 
nutzo said:
Are you calling me old? :)

I hear the same complaints from both technical users and non-techies about how horrible the windows 8/metro UI is. Most of them wish they could have bought their new laptop with windows 7.
I also hear the same complaints about Server 2012.

If Windows 9 looks/works more like the Windows 7 UI, I predict that Window 9 will surpass windows 8 installs within 6 months of it's release.
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I get the same complaints and the overwhelming vast majority have never seen it in action or used it. It usually goes something along the lines of...my roommate said 8 sucks and to stick with 7 or my son said that Windows 8 is too complicated and slow. Generally when I ask to show them windows 8 most like it. It takes no less time to train someone on windows 8 then it does with 7. When I say windows 8 I mean 8.1 of course but the same held true with 8.

Windows 8 works just fine and if 9 doesn't offer anything but switches to make it behave like 7 I won't switch. The only reason I switched to 8 is because I got it for cheap from the University and I ended upbuilding all my new home computers with it. I still do a couple window 7 builds but the majority of clients stick with 8 when I build a computer for them.

An OS should work and provide the user with the ability to navigate freely and effortlessly which windows 8 does. There is a learning curve but really it isn't any more difficult than switching from XP to 7.
 
Ur_Mom said:
A lot of enterprises are still upgrading to Windows 7 from XP. They were waiting for Windows 8, but found that wasn't going to be an option.



Any mention of Windows 8 will bring this. "Windows 8 comes in a box". Posts - Metro sucks. ;) The discussion always starts to go that way. A few will be the "Tried it for 5 minutes, went back to Windows 7. WinSeven4Lyfe!"
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What exactly is your source? I work in and with multiple government contracted companies, several of which are adopting Surface Pro 3's and Windows 8
 
Climber said:
I still do a couple window 7 builds but the majority of clients stick with 8 when I build a computer for them.
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This is the disconnect right here. You can build a machine for home users and say "you'll adapt, just deal with it". It doesn't work that way when you have 5400 workstations in 22 buildings all with managed start menus.
 
Draxanoth said:
This is the disconnect right here. You can build a machine for home users and say "you'll adapt, just deal with it". It doesn't work that way when you have 5400 workstations in 22 buildings all with managed start menus.
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Well of course that is the disconnect. The majority of companies with a large user base don't upgrade every release. The state of Colorado is still on XP and they aren't upgrading to 7. They are sticking with what they know. The banner health systems here are still on Vista and aren't upgrading to 7. Bank of Colorado is sticking with XP and the list goes on.

When I asked about the eol on XP last year and if there was any research into upgrading to 7 or 8 our IT director didnt even know there was a windows 8 nor did he know XP was going eol in January. One of the techs said avoid 8 they don't even have a desktop mode on it. The genuine lack of knowledge regarding operating systems around my neck of the woods is atrocious. When I suggested dell venue 8 pros or surface tablets for our case workers and investigators there was a huge concern over training costs. Working with out HR department and staff trainer we spent a total of 2 1 hour sessions on training. The majority of it wasn't even regarding windows 8 but how to use tablets, security, and how to share notes between their tablets and workstations at the office.

Now you might balk at the training but our workers are required to have 40 hours of annual training so training sessions are kinda huge deals around here so that everyone has the required training time each year.
 
Draxanoth said:
This is the disconnect right here. You can build a machine for home users and say "you'll adapt, just deal with it". It doesn't work that way when you have 5400 workstations in 22 buildings all with managed start menus.
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Plus I don't tell home users that. It really doesn't require a lot of adaptation to use 8. Hell my mother in law figured it out and was comfortable with it within the first day.
 
I'm Director of IT at a Southeastern Corporation. If an applicant starts bad-mouthing Windows 8 in an interview I immediately cross him off the list. A tech's job is to make things work and not to make judgements. In my opinion the difference between Windows 7 and 8 is really insignificant.
 
VladDracule said:
What exactly is your source? I work in and with multiple government contracted companies, several of which are adopting Surface Pro 3's and Windows 8
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Several are... We have a small pilot group with Windows 8. A lot more are going with Windows 7, though.
 
thejokker said:
In my opinion the difference between Windows 7 and 8 is really insignificant.
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8.1 Update when configured for keyboard and mouse preferences, the difference between running desktop applications on it and 7 isn't vastly different. How quickly one adapted would depend on a number of factors, but a 15 overview would get many up to speed faster than one might think. A lot of is attitude. If the UI is just a UI and one is simply trying to learn, it's not a huge undertaking.

That said, it's obvious that there have been enough complaints that Microsoft had to approach 9 differently. It will be very interesting to see what comes out of this Windows 8 debate and if Microsoft listened to both sides on this. The same old same old simply isn't good enough. And being able to use an x86 tablet that has both the desktop and touch capable apps, while niche, is still a unique feature among all current OSes. Windows 8 has it's problems, but if one gets used to it, it's extremely flexible and supports a LOT of capability. 9 needs to continue this but make it easier for existing desktop users to pick up.
 
Climber said:
Well of course that is the disconnect. The majority of companies with a large user base don't upgrade every release. The state of Colorado is still on XP and they aren't upgrading to 7. They are sticking with what they know. The banner health systems here are still on Vista and aren't upgrading to 7. Bank of Colorado is sticking with XP and the list goes on.

When I asked about the eol on XP last year and if there was any research into upgrading to 7 or 8 our IT director didnt even know there was a windows 8 nor did he know XP was going eol in January. One of the techs said avoid 8 they don't even have a desktop mode on it. The genuine lack of knowledge regarding operating systems around my neck of the woods is atrocious. When I suggested dell venue 8 pros or surface tablets for our case workers and investigators there was a huge concern over training costs. Working with out HR department and staff trainer we spent a total of 2 1 hour sessions on training. The majority of it wasn't even regarding windows 8 but how to use tablets, security, and how to share notes between their tablets and workstations at the office.

Now you might balk at the training but our workers are required to have 40 hours of annual training so training sessions are kinda huge deals around here so that everyone has the required training time each year.
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maybe those in Colorado need to put their joints down (marijuana, yes I went there). once the haze disappears they will see that xp has some security flaws that need to dealt with.
 
still kind of funny people are getting excited over a 13% market share. lol that in its self tell you a lot.
 
some people need to click their pants, so excited about windows 8 over linux, but windows 7 has 51 % of the market share they say nothing about that! still a micro$oft product, last time I did math that means 38% more than windows 8...any body saying anything about that?
 
Autopia said:
some people need to click their pants, so excited about windows 8 over linux, but windows 7 has 51 % of the market share they say nothing about that! still a micro$oft product, last time I did math that means 38% more than windows 8...any body saying anything about that?
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:rolleyes:
 
Why would you? Windows 8 was an excellent OS and it had a pretty lengthy run. The same reason why windows 8 is slowly climbing is the same reason windows 7 is entrenched. It is a great OS and what MS tried to do was either daring or foolish but regardless of the outcome MS is correct in the assumption that the modern OS needs to be updated or changed to support new work environments.

The better question is why focus on 2 year OS updates?
 
DPI said:
Yep. Windows 8 being the only choice when someone goes into BestBuy and wants a windows laptop let's say, well duh Win8 will make a tiny gain when its the only choice.

That "gain' is pathetic and little more than coasting on the inertia of past Windows versions that didn't take customers for granted. The telling statistic is that Windows 7 is consistently holding steady and during many periods since Win8's release was actually gaining share which is unprecedented for Windows when a successive version was already out.
Click to expand...
I honestly don't think PC sales would be much (if any) better even if they had skipped the entire UI update in Windows 8. Consider the facts...

- PC hardware is at the "good enough" stage for the vast majority of users. These machines will get used until they drop dead.
- The vast majority of users use whatever OS their machine came with for the duration of ownership.

Most users have no reason to buy a new machine, most users don't upgrade their existing machines to a new OS. That's going to lead to a sales flat-line NO MATTER WHAT their OS division does.
 
Autopia said:
some people need to click their pants, so excited about windows 8 over linux, but windows 7 has 51 % of the market share they say nothing about that! still a micro$oft product, last time I did math that means 38% more than windows 8...any body saying anything about that?
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I think plenty of people are talking about the slow adoption rate of Windows 8.x. Historically the newest version of Windows always faces it biggest competition from a prior version of Windows. Given the long span between XP to Vista to 7 and Vista's unpopularity, 7's uptake was unusually strong from the beginning, not even XP saw such rapid adoption at the beginning. 8 was never going to be more popular than 7 under even the best of circumstances for 8. It's hard to say how much more market share 8.x would have taken even without the controversy of it's UI because most Windows copies are sold with new PCs, businesses have just recently done XP to 7 migrations and the PC market is still in contraction, though that's stabilized somewhat this year.
 
VladDracule said:
its also higher than every single distro of linux and ios
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I should have qouted the people that got overly excited at the fact that windows 8 is growing but never mention windows 7, 3 after i posted that I thought it was funny that peolpe are excited over a windows 8 13% market share but never compared it windows 7
 
Autopia said:
I should have qouted the people that got overly excited at the fact that windows 8 is growing but never mention windows 7, 3 after i posted that I thought it was funny that peolpe are excited over a windows 8 13% market share but never compared it windows 7
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I don't think anyone is excited about Windows 8's market share. It's simply something people like to talk about due to Windows 8's unpopularity. No doubt we will be talking much more Windows 9's market share than Windows 7's whether or not Windows 9 proves to be popular.
 
Windows 8 is a great OS. Fast and responsive. Breathes new life to older laptops. Anyone that complains about W8 on a desktop environment should just shut up and install either Classicshell or Start8.
 
Steve said:
Slowly but surely, Windows 8 is gaining market share.
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What else was/is supposed to happen? Try getting a different version of Windows installed on your new PC or notebook (or freaking cellphone) from MS and see how far you get. The company is forcing the issue, same as they did with Windows XP and 2000, and with 90+% control of the world's desktops it amounts to legalized extortion. imo.
 
faugusztin said:
Is installing Classic Shell really that hard ? :rolleyes:
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Yes it is. You know, we are [H]ard and do case mods and all kinds of fancy stuff to get 0.001% moar power out of our hardware, but seriously, installing a program to get the functionality we want out of a clearly better and faster OS is just outrageous.
 
Also, I got a brand new laptop with Windows 7 Home Pro OEM back in July. And it has the i7-4710HQ processor, launched in Q2'14.
 
thejokker said:
I'm Director of IT at a Southeastern Corporation. If an applicant starts bad-mouthing Windows 8 in an interview I immediately cross him off the list. A tech's job is to make things work and not to make judgements. In my opinion the difference between Windows 7 and 8 is really insignificant.
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Then you're a terrible IT director. They removed a lot of the great network functionality for enterprises when they created Windows 8. One of the biggest is managing network start menus. Google it.
 
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