With nary a fanfare, Windows 7 has finally cemented itself as the operating system of choice for a majority of the world's PCs.
At least, that's according to the latest figures from StatCounter, which maintains that Windows 7 commanded a market share of 50.2 percent of all measured desktops this past June.
Windows XP gives way to Windows 7
Even if pundits want to pick apart the specific figures, the overall trend remains: Windows 7 is on the up, and it's been (mostly) eating away at the Windows XP user base for some time now.
The two operating systems last clashed in October of 2011 when StatCounter's analytics revealed that Windows 7 had finally overtaken Windows XP with a market share of 40.5 percent to 38.5 percent.
Of course, Windows 7 still has a bit of a ways to go before it reaches Windows XP's previous dominance, a market share of nearly 77 percent as measured by StatCounter in December of 2008.
The looming question remains: Just how high will Windows 7's market share hit before Windows 8 begins to cannibalize sales?
And, more importantly, will Windows 8 exclusively pull from Windows 7's market base - an odd upgrade path for users, given the core similarities between the two operating systems - or will serve as one more nail in Windows XP's coffin?