Windows 10 is now the second desktop OS in the world

Jan 18, 2016 12:41 GMT  ·  By

Since Windows 10’s launch in July 2015, the new desktop operating system has improved its share gradually, becoming the third most used PC platform in the last months of the year.

And while Microsoft praised this early performance and claimed Windows 10 was even more successful than Windows 7, statistics showed that it remained behind its predecessors, despite the free upgrade offer available for consumers.

But the first 15 days of January seem to be really successful for Windows 10, as Microsoft’s new OS has already managed to overtake Windows 8.1 and to become the world’s second most-used desktop platform.

Windows 7 still the preferred desktop platform

Right now, Windows 7 is still the leader in the PC business, according to data provided by StatCounter, while Windows 10 is the runner-up, ahead of 8.1 and OS X. Windows 7 leads the charts with 46.7 percent, and although Windows 10 is far behind with 13.41 percent, its adoption is on the rise, and better figures are likely to be achieved very soon.

Windows 8.1 is just behind Windows 10 with 11.81 percent while OS X is next with 8.94 percent. Windows XP is slowly but surely collapsing, so it’s now at 8.12 percent.

Certainly, these figures are quite encouraging for Microsoft, as the company wants to bring Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by 2017, and with more and more enterprises upgrading to the new OS, it’s all just a matter of time until this goal is reached.

Windows 10 will continue to be available as a free upgrade for consumers on Windows 7 and 8.1 until July 29, 2016, but enterprises still have to pay to install the new OS on their PCs. Microsoft, however, hopes that everyone will eventually deploy Windows 10, so its aggressive push will continue in the coming months.