A closer look at Windows 8’s decline in market share

There is a lot of good news for Microsoft in the most recent Net Market Share data. The silver lining is overshadowed, however, by the fact that the current flagship operating system–Windows 8–actually declined in market share over the last month. I think it goes without saying that is never a good thing.

First the positives. Windows 7 had the largest increase in market share of any of the operating system versions. It climbed from 50.06 to 50.55 percent market share. Windows 7 also lead the way to an overall gain in market share of 0.54 percentage points for Windows as a whole. Microsoft’s Windows owns over 91 percent of the desktop OS market, with Mac OS X coming in a (very) distant second at less than 7 percent.

Then there’s Windows 8. Windows 8.1 had an increase of 0.26 percentage points, but Windows 8 dropped 0.36 percentage points. That means that some portion of Windows 8 users made a switch to Windows 8.1, but others–a tenth of a percentage point worth–simply abandoned Windows 8. Judging from the increase in Windows 7, it seems safe to say that there were some Windows 8 defectors who went back to the previous OS.

For more, read what I wrote over at TechRepublic: Making sense of the decline of Windows 8 market share.