Why it matters to you
The more people using Windows 10, the greater the support it will receive from developers. So it’s good news that Windows 10 passed 25 percent in terms of OS market share in January.
Although Microsoft is transitioning from the “Windows company” to the “cloud-first, mobile-first” productivity solutions company, that doesn’t mean that Windows is unimportant to its strategy. Rather, it’s the opposite — much of what Microsoft wants to do involves Windows 10 being successful, and so company executives are certain to be paying attention to market share numbers.
It appears that Windows 10 continues to make slow but steady progress in taking over the reins from Windows 7. According to the latest NetMarketShare data, Windows 10 has passed the 25-percent mark in terms of market share.
More: Windows 10 market share hits 20 percent after eight months, but issues remain
Specifically, Windows 10 achieved 25.3 percent share in January 2017, up from 24.6 percent in December 2017. That represents more than double the market share Windows 10 enjoyed a year ago, when it held 11.85 percent of the market.
NetMarketShare
At the same time, Windows 7 dropped from 48.34 percent to 47.2 percent between December 2016 and January 2017. In January 2016, Windows 7 was at 52.47 percent, meaning that much of Windows 10’s market share increase has come from a steady decrease in Windows 8.X, Windows XP, and MacOS.
Microsoft is also pushing its new Edge browser, with a number of feature enhancements coming in the Windows 10 Creators Update in April 2017. Edge gained share slightly, moving from 4.12 percent to 4.52 percent, which is likely well within the study’s margin of error. Internet Explorer, as expected, continued its steady decline.
While Microsoft likely won’t be able to achieve its original goal of a billion Windows 10 users by 2018, more than 400 million people have made the switch and Windows 10 continues to climb in market share. As businesses continue to migrate from Windows 7 to Windows 10, that trend could accelerate.