Black Friday boosts Windows 8 net use in US above 2%

While we have reports from the NPD and elsewhere of slow Windows 8 sales, it seems Black Friday (23rd November) had a pretty distinct effect on the installed base of Windows 8 PCs, as can be seen from the above StatCounter data shows.

While the days leading up to Black Friday had Windows 8 running below 1% US net usage, Thanks Giving and Black Friday saw a large number of new Windows 8 PCs hitting the market, taking its US share above 2%. While the number reduced over the next week,indicating that Windows 8 users are mainly at home rather than at work, it returned to 2.12% yesterday, indicating the new level was real and not just an artefact of increased usage over the holiday break.

The stats mean that for every 25 Windows 7 users there is one Windows 8 user, and similarly for every 7 Windows XP and MacOS X user there is one Windows 8 user, a ratio which will likely continue to decrease over the coming months.