Windows 8 Market Share Grows Very Slowly

According to a new report from Net Applications, Windows 8 grew its user base slightly during March. Windows 7 remained the number one operating system.

CNET’s Lance Whitney reported, “Windows 8 is slowly carving out a slightly larger slice of the OS market. The latest flavor of Windows captured 3.17 percent of all desktop OS traffic tracked by Net Applications in March. That was a small gain from the 2.67 percent share in February.”

PCWorld’s Daniel Ionescu added, “Windows captures more than 91 percent of the desktop OS market (Macs collectively have 6.94 percent and Linux systems, 1.17 percent), but Windows 7 is used on 44.73 percent of systems and XP has 38.73 percent of the market. At 3.17 percent of the market, Windows 8 is the fourth most popular OS, still behind Vista (which retains 4.99 percent) but ahead of Mac OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion (2.65 percent).”

The Next Web’s Emil Protalinski noted, “With the Windows 8 upgrade deal for $15 having expired at the end of February, it is difficult for Microsoft to avoid a slowdown in sales. Microsoft will have to rely on students taking advantage of the $70 price tag to spur sales and of course on OEMs luring in new customers with unique hardware propositions.”

In related news, Dell mentioned Windows 8’s poor performance in a filing with the SEC related to its decision to go private. Computerworld’s Greg Keizer wrote, “Dell blamed Microsoft’s Windows 8 as one of several causes for its grim financial future, according to a filing with securities regulators. ‘The difficult environment faced by the Company as a result of its underperformance relative to a number of its competitors [includes] … the uncertain adoption of the Windows 8 operating system,’ Dell said in a lengthy proxy statement filed Friday with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).”