Almost one year after the introduction of Windows 7, it appears that the hype has faded. The overall market share of Windows has turned into a slight decline again. Windows 7 is gaining share, but it cannot keep pace with the loss of Windows XP and Vista. Especially Windows XP users seem to be happy with what they have and appear to be rather resistant to Microsoft's pitches that it is time to upgrade to Windows 7.
It is no secret that Windows users have learned that change is something Windows computers don't like. Often, it is much easier to leave the Windows version that came with a PC as it was and avoid the pain of upgrading. Vista may have been an exception, as the operating system itself was worth the extra pain (or not), while Windows XP was a solid software that works well for the majority of computer users worldwide even today.
New market-share data from Net Applications puts XP's market share at 60.03%, down from 60.89% in the month before. Windows Vista fell from 14.00% to 13.35%, while Windows 7 gained 1.25 points to 17.10%. It is interesting to see that Vista and XP lost a combined 1.51 points in September: The difference between the gain of 7 and the loss of Vista/XP represents 100% of the Windows market-share loss, which was down 0.25 points to 91.08% in September.
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