The year 2010 ended quite well for two products from Microsoft and Google, at least when it comes to specific market share numbers. Windows 7 passed the 20 percent mark while Chrome almost reached double digits. Despite IE8's strong growth and the IE9 beta program, Internet Explorer has hit a historic low. Firefox is stubbornly holding on to its users, while Chrome and Safari continue their growth. Before we go into further detail with browsers, let's take a peek into the world of Windows.
Windows 7 has been steadily stealing share from Windows Vista and Windows XP ever since it was first released. It is now installed on one in five computers. Its predecessor Vista never managed to achieve that feat. In the 12 months since release, Microsoft sold 240 million licenses of Windows 7; by now that number is surely approaching 300 million.
Between January and December 2010, Windows XP fell almost 10 percentage points to 56.72 percent market share. In the same period, Windows Vista lost over five percentage points to 12.11 percent. Windows 7 meanwhile has gained over 13 percentage points, pushing it to 20.87 percent.
