Windows 10 Count Finally Exceeds Windows 7
How about that? According to Statcounter, the global population of Internet users now supports more Window 10 than 7 users. This is a major inflection point in the curve of adoption and use of Windows versions. It also represents a changing of the guard. Now, the prior reigning Windows 7 version is giving way to a new king, Windows 10. According to this source, the cutover actually occurred in early December. The graph lines for the two OSes overlap or nearly coincide for much of December. Right now, though, it’s clear which way things are going. Here’s what the graph looks like, as we see that indeed the Windows 10 count finally exceeds Windows 7
Looks like the lines crossed at the outset of December, but they’re diverging slowly for now.
[Click image for full-sized view. Source: Statcounter]
So Windows 10 Count Finally Exceeds Windows 7, Now What?
Windows 10 released on July 29, 2015, though I started using it in October 2014 when the first Technical Preview came out. That means it’s been around for 30-39 months, depending on how you want to measure things. With the user bases for both Windows 7 and 10 at around 600M each, that puts annual growth rates for Windows 10 in a range of 15.4 to 20M per month since those possible start dates. At that rate of growth, assuming that what 10 gains 7 loses, it would take another 2.5 years for Win7 to “go away” completely.
Of course, the same graph tells us that old OSes don’t really ever die. They just wither away, but not completely. And in fact, XP still trumps Win8 and Vista so it’s equally obvious that popularity and perceived usability matter more than age to users. What will be interesting is to watch the slope of the decline for Windows 7 and the growth of Windows 10. I can easily image that both will steepen, but only time will tell.
FWIW, analytics.usa.gov has shown Win10 ahead of Win7 for some time now (at least since early 2017). But that’s a primarily US-oriented site, with nearly 90% of all users originating from within the country. The Statcounter numbers are global, and reflect the Internet writ large. NetMarketShare still shows Windows 10 lagging around 16% apart from one another, with 7 at 44.81% and 10 at 28.19%. The actual gap is 16.62%, which translates into a ratio of around 1.6 7 users for every single 10 user. I’ve long been skeptical about NMS numbers, and this disparity does nothing to reverse that feeling.
There’s a New Desktop Boss
It is pretty clear that Windows 10 is taking over. I expect that means we’ll see business adoptions accelerate going forward, with Windows 7 end of life (end of extended) support set at January 14, 2020.