According to Redmond, Windows 8 is not just the greatest OS ever designed, it’s also selling extremely well.
Microsoft claimed back in November 2012 that it had sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the first month. That’s a mighty impressive figure, even factoring in the OEM systems that come pre-loaded with Windows. But, is what Microsoft’s saying actually true? Is Windows 8 really off to that fast of a start? There’s evidence to suggest otherwise!
According to data put together by a web analytics firm called Net Applications, Windows 8′s online usage share is a tiny bit under 1.6 percent of all Windows PCs up to 22 December 2012. Comparing that to when Windows Vista launched back in 2007, its online usage share of all Windows PCs was 2.2 percent through the exact same time period.
Put simply, Windows 8 is seeing a slower adoption than Windows Vista! Looking closer, Windows 8 adoption grew by a mere 0.4 percentage from 22 November to 22 December, whereas Vista’s adoption more than doubled during its second month on the market.
It should be noted that this is just raw data; which doesn’t exactly account for the decline in PC sales or any other factors that might skew the results. Nor does it factor in the increased numbers of computers online today compared 2007. With so much riding on Windows 8, it can’t be a good sign that Vista got off to a quicker start.
