According to data released by research firm Net Applications, users of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems still predominately use Windows XP. The data showed that XP had a market share of about 60.03 percent, down from 60.89 percent the previous month. Windows 7 gained 1.25 points to 17.10 percent while Windows Vista dropped from 14.00 percent to 13.00 percent.
Of all machines running Microsoft’s Windows operating system software, approximately 66 percent were still running Windows XP, down from 76 percent before Windows 7 launched. During September, Windows Vista had a share of 14.66 percent among will Windows users, down quite a bit from its peak at 20.35 percent. Windows 7 has a 19 percent share among all Windows users.
The results are not very surprising, but it does show that the overall decline in Windows market share (albeit slight) is not being made up by the growth of Windows 7. It also shows that computer users are probably reluctant to invest in a new computer to support Windows 7 if their XP machine works just fine, or even if they could upgrade, are unwilling to risk running into compatibility and other issues.
Net Applications’ data showed that MacOS X stayed stable at around 5.03 percent market share in September, and so did Linux installations at 0.85 percent. The only other operating system showing gains is Apple’s iOS, at 1.18 percent.
As usual, different firms have different figures. StatCounter reports Windows XP market share at 53.99 percent, Windows Vista’s market share at 16.59 percent and Windows 7’s market share at 22.04 percent. The overall trend of StatCounter’s figures generally reflects that of Net Applications’ data.
Result for: windows users
In the first month since Microsoft created the “browser ballot box” as a way to end the EU’s antitrust case against them, Internet Explorer’s market share has dropped, as much as 2.5 percent in some nations such as France.
Data from StatCounter says IE market share dropped 2.5 percent in France, 1.3 percent in Italy, and 1 percent in the UK, not giant numbers, but definitely notable. Opera has reported that downloads of their browser are 200 percent higher, while Mozilla says: “We have seen significant growth in the number of new Firefox users as a result of the Ballot Choice screen.”
The ballot box gives Windows users a chance to choose between 12 different browsers.
Result for: windows users
LaCie has announced the release of their latest Blu-ray burner, the updated d2 which can write to Blu-ray Disc at 8x.
The drive can also write “fully copy-protected, studio-grade movies” at 2x and single layer DVDs at 16x. Dual-layer discs can be burnt at 8x.
Electronista says, “The drive carries both FireWire 400 and USB interfaces and has a second FireWire port to daisy-chain the d2 with other peripherals and save expansion ports. Both Mac and Windows users get Roxio’s Toast Titanium 9 and Easy Media Creator 10 to author Blu-ray discs, though only Windows users get playback software to watch Blu-ray movies.”
The drive is already available and has a suggested price of $450 USD, a bit more expensive than other 8x Blu-ray burners available now.
