Last month, Windows 7 crossed into double-digit market share numbers. Microsoft disclosed that it sold more than 60 million copies of Windows 7 by the end of 2009, and now we know this very quick growth has continued through the first quarter of 2010.
On the whole, between February and March 2010, Windows dropped a sizeable 0.54 percentage points (from 92.12 percent to 91.58 percent). More specifically, Windows XP dropped 1.03 percentage points (from 65.49 percent to 64.46 percent), Windows Vista dipped 0.50 percentage points (from 16.51 percent to 16.01 percent), and Windows 7 jumped 1.31 percentage points (from 8.92 percentage points to 10.23 percent).
At Ars, our readers have embraced Microsoft's latest operating system much faster. Windows users accounted for 65.01 percent of our visitors last month. Of those, 31.23 percent use Windows XP, 10.85 percent Vista, and 21.85 percent Windows 7. One in 10 users on the Internet are using Windows 7, compared to one in five on Ars.
Even if Windows is slowly losing share, Windows 7 is doing phenomenally well. Above, you can see how quickly the OS has been gaining share in its first few months compared to Windows Vista's first few months. In the two quarters after their respective releases, Windows 7 grabbed 10.23 percent while Windows Vista only managed only 4.54 percent of the market.
Source: ars technica
