Windows 8 market share soars in August, leapfrogs OS X

Windows 8
It's rising, like tile-based yeast

Are people finally embracing Windows 8, 10 months after it first hit the shelves?

The latest stats from Net Applications suggest that they might be: the embattled OS jumped from 5.4% market share in July to 7.41% in August, its sharpest rise yet.

It's a rare case of good news for Microsoft and Windows 8, which market watcher IDC partly blamed for dismal PC sales back in April.

Golden oldies

But it still has a long way to go, indicated by the gulf between Windows 8 and Windows 7, which grew market share from 44.49% in July to 45.63% in August.

Windows 8 also trails XP, the veritable zombie of the operating system world that still boasted 33.66% market share in August, even after a sharp drop from the 37.19% it held in July.

It did, however, overtake Apple's OS X, which came in fourth at 7.26%, and it far surpassed ahead of Linux's 1.5%.

Net Applications gleans its findings from data captured from 160 million unique visitors each month by monitoring 40,000 websites for its clients.

Surface help

Windows 8's 2% jump in market share was likely assisted by cuts made to Microsoft's Surface Pro, which saw $50 permanently lopped off its usual retail price in August.

It will also be given a helping hand by the introduction of Windows 8.1 in October, which promises to rectify many of the original's teething problems – from the missing 'Start' menu to enhanced built-in apps and more flexible ways to snap apps side by side.

Kane Fulton
Kane has been fascinated by the endless possibilities of computers since first getting his hands on an Amiga 500+ back in 1991. These days he mostly lives in realm of VR, where he's working his way into the world Paddleball rankings in Rec Room.