Since Microsoft ended its free upgrade offer for Windows 7 and 8 users last July, the growth of Windows 10 had pretty much slowed down over the last couple of months. We saw a slight uptick in December when NetMarketShare reported that the OS reached a 24.36% desktop OS share, but new data for last month reveals that the total market share of Windows 10 is now at 25.36% (via Neowin).
According to the same data, the seven years-old Windows 7 still claims a 47.2 OS share (down 1.14 percentage point), while Windows XP and Windows 8.1 hold a 9.17% and 6.9% market share, respectively. You can see a broader picture of the desktop OS trends by version in the image below:
Two months ago, a report from ZDNet used NetMarketShare’s data to forecast that Windows 10 could overtake Windows 7 by December 2017, at the condition that the new OS maintains its current growth rate in the coming months. We still think that this prediction may be a bit too optimistic, but you can count on Microsoft to do everything it cans to drive Windows 10 adoption this year. That could include the release of a new Windows 10 SKU reportedly called “Windows 10 Cloud,” which is expected to bring down the costs of low-end Windows 10 PCs.
