Windows 7 Surpasses Vista in Usage

Well, it’s happened. Windows 7 has finally passed Vista in terms of overall usage, and it took a just under ten months to accomplish. That’s far more impressive than Vista’s first ten months, that’s for sure. Since its launch, 7 has been on a clean incline, and if it keeps up the rate it’s going, then XP is surely to be surpassed in the year ahead, which would be even more of an impressive accomplishment.

In November, a month after 7 launched, the OS held a 4.00% marketshare compared to Vista’s 18.55%. A couple of months later, in March, 7 sat at a much more comfortable 10.23%, but Vista was still a fair bit ahead at 16.01%. Well, at the end of July, 7 held 14.46% marketshare, while Vista continued its decline and sat at 14.34%. It’s close, but it’s clear that in the months ahead, the spread will become wider.

These numbers come from tracking firm Netmarketshare, and unfortunately, Windows XP numbers are not mentioned. For the sake of interest, though, during the same month of July, Windows 7 accounted for 45.29% of our readers using Windows, while XP is just behind at 40.25%. Vista, not surprisingly, has plummeted over the course of the past year to currently sit at 13.20%.

The success of Windows 7 isn’t all too surprising, and I’m sure many would agree. I don’t think I know anyone who’s currently running anything other than 7 on their recent PC, which is something that certainly didn’t happen even one year after Vista’s launch. Perhaps Microsoft’s “Windows 7 was MY idea” campaign actually paid off.