On the desktop side of things, but that’s where it counts, right? The modern operating system has finally taken over the previous behemoth Windows XP in global usage.
Granted, keeping in mind the pace at which one OS was losing users, and the other gaining them, this was only a matter of time. But according to the statistics provided by market research firm StatCounter, Microsoft’s latest has now reached this important milestone.
Here are the numbers, by the way.
And they show that for the first 21 days of November, Windows XP now powers only 11.79% of the desktop computers the world over. The corresponding figures for Windows 8.1 come in at 11.92% across the world.
Good enough for a second place finish, the silver.
The gold standard on the desktop still remains Windows 7 with its intimidating share of 55.95%. And growing, and growing. Clear sign that not all that have stepped away from Windows XP have chosen Windows 8.1 — many still have an eye for its predecessor.
Fourth place goes to Mac OS X, which finds itself installed on 8.98% of computers, while Windows 8 shows figures of only 5.5%.
Chances are that a few of these Windows 8 users also finally made the upgrade to Window 8.1.
The big news, however, remains that Windows XP is quickly going down, and considering the security situation on the classic platform, it just had to be.
source:statcounter
