Some good news for Microsoft. The company’s latest operating system, Windows 10, keeps on growing at a respectable pace, even with the free upgrade promotion having ended.
The free offer for Windows 10 expired exactly one year after the launch of the OS, but Microsoft’s latest and greatest has seen another uptick during August. With the Anniversary Update finally available, Windows 10 market share now sits at a respectable 23%.
This is up from 21% that was recorded in July.
These numbers are from NetMarketShare, and confirm that Microsoft’s operating system is powering nearly a quarter of all desktop systems out there in the world. And this is particularly impressive, given the fact that the operating system has been out on the market for just over a year.
That does not mean everything is rosy in the world of Windows.
Both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 saw some noticeable bumps in usage, with the first one gaining 0.25% market share, and the latter gaining 0.1%. Windows XP, meanwhile, lost somewhere around 1% of its user base between July and August, and that is more good news for Redmond.
Interestingly, Mac OS X 10.11 saw a decline of 0.30% during the same time period, which is curious.
What would please Microsoft the most, beside the positive reception, is the trend also seems to be positive. Windows 10 continues to gain market share, even with users having to pay for the OS now.
And then when you bring in the fact that companies and businesses are also expected to start deploying Windows 10 in droves this year and the next, and the outlook seems bright.
