Windows 10 overtakes Windows 7 in USA

Windows 10 may still only be a fraction of the desktop operating systems used worldwide, but in some markets it is now the dominant operating system.

According to Statcounter (as tweeted,by David Storey, Edge developer at Microsoft) Windows 10 for the first time overtook Windows 7 in USA on the 29th May, joining Western Europe, Australia and some other smaller markets where this is the case.

Yesterday was the 1st day Win 10 was top OS by usage in North America (SC). Also 1st in North Europe & Australasia pic.twitter.com/c2oXiwziAy

— David Storey (@dstorey) May 31, 2016

According to web tracking company Windows 10 now holds 28.82 of the desktop browsing market, vs 28.65 for Windows 7, with OSX a distant third at 16.16%. Worldwide it sits at 16% vs 40% for Windows 7.

With the free update to Windows 10 expiring soon we may soon see an acceleration of the trend, to be followed presumably by the slower PC replacement cycle edging towards Microsoft’s 1 billion target.

The news underlines in some ways that Windows 10 does not have to be the dominant OS all over the world if it can succeed in the richer markets such as USA and Western Europe, where users are more likely to buy into concepts such as the app store on their PC, and can convince the dominant western development houses to invest in the platform.

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