Windows 8 is around the corner and I’m constantly seeing folks on social networks and in personal blogs declaring that Windows is dead and Microsoft won’t survive past Windows 8. We’ve written in the past about how important Windows 8′s success is to Microsoft — though with a significantly less doomsaying as to the potential of a mass exodus.
While I agree with the impact that this update will have on the PC world as a whole, it’s hard to believe that Microsoft’s dominating market share will somehow fall away overnight.
Microsoft gets a bad rap. It’s very easy for folks to take their frustrations out on the company that they deem most responsible for their technology ills. It’s also reasonable to assume that many of the pundits out there who use OS X as their primary operating systems are prone to talk about whatever it is they use more than anything else. It happens, and I even struggle to make sure that my own coverage is as fair and balanced as possible.
Apple is Big, but Let’s Get Real About the Usage Numbers
Apple has a huge market share in the world of mobile phones, portable media players, and handheld gaming devices. It’s currently dominating the technology industry in terms of revenue, but this doesn’t translate directly into desktop computer market share.
I need but to look at our own reader statistics here at LockerGnome to see that Microsoft still holds a dominating position in technology. Here’s a look at some of the statistics we’ve seen over the past three months. Keep in mind that we, like many members of the technology community, cover Apple quite extensively.
- 65.55% Windows
- 11.94% Macintosh
- 11.91% iOS
- 5.70% Android
- 2.80% Linux
- 0.31% BlackBerry
Just taking a look at these numbers, it’s obvious that Microsoft’s Windows operating system is still the most popular operating system among readers. Only about 1/10 of our visitors are browsing from a Mac and 1/5 of our visitors are using any type of Apple-branded product.
W3Schools.com regularly releases usage statistics for its users and the spread is actually tipped a little harder in Microsoft’s favor. Over 54% of its total users are running Windows 7 and 24.8% are still operating Windows XP.
- 83.8% Windows
- 8.7% Macintosh
- 5.0% Linux
- 1.8% Mobile
Why I Believe Windows 8 Won’t Sink Microsoft
Now that we know where users presently sit, we can concentrate on exactly why rumors of Microsoft’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
First, let’s assume that Windows 8 is a massive flop. Windows Vista was a massive flop, and Microsoft has managed to come back with a vengeance. 3.2% of WPSchool’s visitors were running Windows Vista. Since Windows XP and Windows 7 have such a larger share, it’s reasonable to assume that the market is adaptable enough to skip a release if it doesn’t like what Microsoft has to offer. Folks are still using Windows XP because it works for them. Many people saw Windows 7 as the release of Windows that Vista should have been, and the statistics certainly support that point.
Windows 8 could be a catastrophe, but I doubt it’ll be the catalyst for Microsoft to lose its dominance over the market. If anything, OEMs and users will stick with Windows 7 (or even Windows XP) until Windows 9 comes out. A few might fall off the Microsoft bandwagon and head over to the Linux or Apple camps, but not all.
Windows 8 introduces a number of new features that are sure to bring a pain point to some users, but more important, it optimizes the experience for a growing market of tablet users. I still stand by my original theory that Microsoft is making a smart bet on what will be the future of hardware design by taking a leap into the touchscreen market today.
What do you think? Please leave a comment below!
Been using Win8 since RTM, no touchscreen, but I am loving it. One of the nice thing about the metro apps is that it runs in the background, kind of out of sight, out of mind until a notification pops up. I have to admit though having multiple monitors makes it usable. I don’t think I could handle it on a laptop or a single screen computer. It would drive me crazy but I’d adjust. I just wish there were more usable apps.
The great point of Locker Gnome is that many have opinions shared peacefully.
I personally have gone to bat for windows and have seen a larger picture when it comes to windows. Their Table Top models syncing with their phones and what not will be great for business but how long will it be before Apple or Linux catch up?
I respectfully listen to Parillo and his opinions even though I disagree on some of his views but I agree with him 100% that Windows has become irrelevant in today’s society.
I am currently using Windows 7 and it is so good that it will last the test of time but I have no plans to upgrade to 8 in it’s current state if I have to add 3rd party apps in order to return function I previously had.
Windows 8 is in my opinion Anti-Desktop and made that way on purpose to compete with a tablet market. If I were Microsoft I would have gone that way as well, their entire future is competing with cheap Chinese hardware with a free Android OS and Apple.
If push comes to shove I will move to Linux or a Hakintosh and run my favorite programs through some type of emulator and at full capacity.
The difference you stated that they bounced back from Vista was an argument that the competition wasn’t as it is now. How can you bounce back when you can easily port to another system and still use your original programs and files.
To this day I refuse to leave Firefox because IE is nothing but a huge advertising magnet and I don’t care that it can load 5 seconds faster if I have to see garbage popup in my face that I will never buy.
So removing Aero, the Start button and Metro as an option and the individual Files/Folders size issue has turned me off to Windows 8 and I don’t have to pay for Linux.
Microsoft cooks it’s own goose and I really hope they read these blogs but the last time the listened to us is when they were going under.
Lastly, they aren’t going anywhere soon. They have tremendous contracts with the US Government and the rest of the world but if I were still in the Military I would recommend moving to Android based systems. Where I used to work the Doctors would bring their own computers which were macbooks then transfer their notes.
Seriously though, before I got used to 7 my favorite OS was the X64 version of Win XP.
It was damn good but Nvidia stopped making the 3D driver for it then they stopped making it for 7 in order to sell that dongle and glasses setup.
To close my essay I think you will find that people won’t stop using Windows due to fear of the unknown. Who do you know that can run a windows program through Wine that you can just pluck of the street? They already know windows but with 8 it is so radically different and that’s why they should have Metro as an option so people can transition on their own instead of take it or leave it.
Good article but to be fair…”2.80% Linux”…Linux Fanatics was killed off, hence, the lack of Linux visitors.
On my website where the subject is mostly Linux related, the percentages are far different — 54.35% Linux to 31.41% Windows / 4.82% OS X. Perspective…
That’s why I pulled states from two sites. 5.0% was the pull from a more Linux-rich content site.
Ah, fair enough.
I read this in Ubuntu!
Ah, fair enough.
I think Win8 is great and I’ve used DP, CP, and Enterprise RTM. Even on a non-touch PC, Metro has some value, although I’m in traditional desktop with the usual start button almost all the time. Clearly a desktop type system is unusable on a small form factor touch screen device, although mouse and keyboard attachments, to the extent that there may be such, would make anything legacy that would run at all work fine, except for the small screen.
My one issue: suppose I got a really nice and quite tiny portable touch screen device and wished to try to use it as my main computer. Suppose it has a battery-saving setup and an ARM cpu. At present I can’t run non-metro aps. If I had the ability to attach a separate larger monitor, a keyboard, maybe a mouse, maybe a RAID drive, and the legacy stuff would run on my OS, I’d be quite happy.
Windows 8 is designed for a touchscreen phone/tablet- that’s why it stinks on the desktop platform. MS doesn’t care that a very large groups of people dislike 8 on the desktop. Why? Because they now have shoehorned themselves into every OEM on the planet. Windows has never been the superior OS- but Gates was a better (ruthless) businessman who either bought out or drove competition into the ground. They “sort of” were against OS piracy, but knew that it was a small price to pay to keep people “using”…Now, the public doesn’t even have a choice- unless they jump ship to Apple or Linux. I wish more people would install Linux Mint to see that they likely would prefer it as it does better than Windows for the majority of current MS users needs (if you’re not a MS gamer or someone who uses the few Microsoft-has-paid-off-manufacturers-to-only-support-Windows programs, that is).
Windows 8 is designed for a touchscreen phone/tablet- that’s why it stinks on the desktop platform. MS doesn’t care that a very large groups of people dislike 8 on the desktop. Why? Because they now have shoehorned themselves into every OEM on the planet. Windows has never been the superior OS- but Gates was a better (ruthless) businessman who either bought out or drove competition into the ground. They “sort of” were against OS piracy, but knew that it was a small price to pay to keep people “using”…Now, the public doesn’t even have a choice- unless they jump ship to Apple or Linux. I wish more people would install Linux Mint to see that they likely would prefer it as it does better than Windows for the majority of current MS users needs (if you’re not a MS gamer or someone who uses the few Microsoft-has-paid-off-manufacturers-to-only-support-Windows programs, that is).
I like this article. Microsoft owns a lot of the market with desktop computers. I don’t believe that this will be a sinker for Microsoft, nor I don’t think it will be the greatest hit. Change takes time, and this is the future, it will take some time to get acustomed to change, but we will soon make the switch. It may be Windows 9 where it’s just about perfect.
As a designer I must add that the web is changing dramatically now and we who develop new websites follow the now established best practice of designing mobile first, in other words we design from mobile up to desktop not the other way around. Microsoft is following suit with Windows 8 yet keeping a lot of functionality for the PC. It’s just that now you have Metro in the mix.
Also I personally think the new design, layout and interface is great. It’s minimal, straight forward and falls in line with a lot of thinking that skeuomorphism is going out of style fast. The sleek, clean look is already inhabiting newly designed sites.
And so Microsoft will have finally given us the ability to sync our phones, tablets and PCs to the cloud for more efficient data storage and transfer.
Personally, in my profession I have had to use both Macs and PCs. I prefer Microsoft over Apple for only one very important reason – they overcharge for a product that is only 3/4 as efficient as a PC.
I don’t think this will make or break Microsoft as a company or Windows as the dominate desktop OS. However the tablet/device market will eventually make or break them. So far it doesn’t appear that any of the Windows 8 phones/tablets can compete with Androids on price of iOS on the coolness factor.
I don’t see Microsoft disappearing anytime soon but I can see a future (say ten years out) where they are a much smaller niche market, much like what happened to Apple in the late eighties to nineties.