Though it is still the world’s most popular operating system, Windows XP no longer has a majority of the global OS market share.
Analytics firm Net Applications reports that the ubiquitous version of Windows now only commands a presence on 49.84% of computers.
It was of course only a matter of time before XP fell below the majority threshold. It has been slowly losing market share over the last several years – though the key word in that statement is “slowly.”
While individual consumers are likely to upgrade their own PCs every few years, business consumers are far less flexible. Once a network of dozens or hundreds of employee computers are linked to a single operating system, most companies cringe at the thought of performing mass upgrades.
Microsoft has been forced to extend support for XP far beyond what it originally intended, but the OS is now finally starting to shed its skin. The company will officially end support for the platform soon, ending a whopping 10-year run on the market, something that is unlikely to be repeated in the OS market any time soon.
Windows 7, meanwhile, now sits at 27.87%, a 0.74 percentage point jump from last month.
Mac OS X is also on the rise, with its global market share at 5.59%. It was at 5.37% last month.
