The trend continues: Windows 8/8.1 loses market share in July

As usual at the beginning of each month, Net Applications has published its monthly report on Usage quotas for different operating systems of desktop and mobile. On this occasion, the figures reaffirm the curious downward trend of Windows 8 that we already saw from last month.

Windows 8 and 8.1 decreased their usage share from 12.54% in June to 12.48% in July , a reduction of 0.06% that, although small, is complex for Microsoft since Windows 8 is in the phase of its life cycle in which it should be growing at high rates.

The most curious thing of all is that the backtracking is mainly explained by Windows 8.1, whose use should all the more reason be on the rise, as this is a free upgrade from Windows 8.

However, this rollback of Windows 8/8.1 does not translate into a rollback of Windows in general, due to the large growth in share of Windows 7 This operating system reaches a new all-time high of 51.22% of use, already accumulating 5 consecutive months of growth.

There are multiple explanations for the above. There is probably a fraction of users who are downgrading to Windows 7 when buying a new Windows 8/8.1 PC, because they don't get used to the new Metro interfaceWe must also take into account that PCs with Windows 7 are still being sold on the market, and that many users may prefer them for the same reason that would explain the downgrades.

Finally, there are companies that until recently used Windows XP but due to the end of support for this OS, are in the obligation to upgrade to another version of Windows, and they have opted for Windows 7 because it has a shorter learning curve for those who come from XP, and also because it is a better known bet.

What will Microsoft's strategy be in this situation? They are clearly in a very difficult scenario if the rollback of Windows 8 persists in the coming months. It is assumed that Windows Threshold would arrive in 2015 with the intention of addressing the resentments of desktop users who are opting for Windows 7, but given such negative figures, Redmond may want to put their foot on the accelerator and include some of these features in the next Windows 8 Update

Via | The Next Web