PC software giant Microsoft has spent a fortunate advertising its latest operating system – a fortune that a recent survey claims may be wasted. Net Applications, a computer research firm based in Orange County, California, claims that the latest version of Windows – Windows 8 – is beaten by aging but popular Windows XP.
Released in August 2001, Windows XP was Microsoft’s biggest operating system success since the landmark Windows 95 release. The operating system fared well due to limited competition from open source alternatives, as well as an interface that immediately separated it from its predecessors.
Recently, however, Microsoft has struggled to live up to its previous success. The company’s follow-up operating system, Windows Vista, is used by 4.5 percent of home computer users. Windows XP, in comparison, boasts a 37.7 percent market share despite being released almost twelve years ago.
The company’s biggest recent success, Windows 7, appears to follow a remarkably similar pattern. With a 44.85 percent share of the operating system market, it’s the biggest success for Microsoft in years. Windows 8, the company’s latest release, has a 4.27 percent share of the market – one that’s beaten out even by Windows Vista.
While Microsoft continues to dominate the home operating system market – Apple, its top competitor, claims just 6 percent of all OS installations – its latest operating systems are struggle to live up to their predecessors. Windows 8 has thus far failed to make a splash commercially, leading to a range of plausible Vista comparisons.
With Windows XP losing just a fraction of its market share every month, Microsoft’s latest innovation has a long way to go before it can claim the top spot. If its historical performance is anything to go by, it may be another generation before Microsoft has an operating system that makes the same commercial impact as Windows 7.
