Windows 10 Market Share Shows Disappointing Growth

Since it’s release 2 years ago, Windows 10 has proven to be the most popular operating system since XP. Well, it turns out that the popularity might be waning as market shared for the last year shows only a disappointing 5% increase. A lot less than what Microsoft will have hoped for.

Why such poor figures for Windows 10?

Well, certain factors have to be taken into consideration.  Windows 10 initial success was built pretty much entirely on Microsoft offering it to users of Windows 7 for free for a limited time. A smart move to get people to migrate, particularly given that this was an issue Microsoft suffered from with XP users hanging around for far longer than Microsoft wanted.

The other main reason Microsoft offered Windows 10 for free was to allow people to access the Microsoft Store. They fancied, particularly given their idea of coming Xbox games and PC games, that any purchases people would make in the store would more than account for the cost of a new O/S. This has never been truer if you have happened to check out the ‘sale’ currently on in the Store.

The free switch to Windows 10 did end about a year ago now though and since then, a mere 5% increase, as reported by NextPowerUP, is not anywhere near as high as Microsoft would have wanted.

Why is 5% growth so disappointing?

It shows that potentially PC sales might be slowing up. However, the most disturbing factor to Microsoft is probably that it also saw the market share of Windows 7 increase by 2%. They will not view this as good news. They will see it as a significant portion of Windows 10 customers lost. Customers who will not have access to the store or, now, the free upgrade. Customers who were probably bitten by Vista or Windows 8 and are too nervous to change anymore.

Why is Windows 7 seeing growth? probably because since 10 the license packs/keys have gotten less expensive. At a cursory glance, I can find Windows 7 license keys for as little as £10.00. It may however also be indicative of the people that latched onto 7. I believe Microsoft might be a little nervous that Windows 7 doesn’t turn into the new XP.

With Windows 10 currently holding a market share of 26.8%, Microsoft will not be too concerned. I do however think in truth they would’ve hoped to see that figure in the 30%-35% bracket by this point.

Did you take the plunge into Windows 10 or are you still comfortable in your Windows 7 safe zone? or, God help you, are you using Windows 8?!