Suspension of Windows XP
With Microsoft withdrawing support for Windows XP in six months, a drastic number of domestic users have made the switch to Windows 7. The latest operating system (OS), Windows 8, was released almost a year ago, but continues to have trouble settling in the market with only a 5% share.
According to a web traffic analysis company StatCounter on October 13, Windows 7 ranked first place with a 69.38% in the domestic OS market share last month. This is 18% higher than the 51.9% marked in September last year. In fact, Windows 7’s market share has been increasing sharply for the past four months, now 14% higher than the 55% in May.
It is most likely that the number of domestic Windows 7 users increased due to MS announcing the end of Windows XP support. In April, MS Korea announced it will stop supporting Windows XP starting in April next year.
In fact, in May which is right after the announcement, Windows XP’s domestic market share dropped a noticeable 10% in four months, from 31% in April to 21% in September. On the other hand, in the same period of time, the number of Windows 7 users increased quickly, thus meaning most Windows XP users have switched to Windows 7.
An MS Korea associate said, “The number of Windows 7 users increased because users upgraded their OS just in time around the XP support termination announcement.”
Unlike Windows 7 growing steadily in the domestic OS market, the one-year-old Windows 8 is still not doing too well.
In October last year, MS released its newest Windows 8 in three years. Its global market share was 7.4% last month. However, in the domestic market where the subordination of Windows OS is high, its share remained at 4.5%. This number increased minimally for the past six months from the 3.62% in March.
Regarding this, an MS Korea associate said, “Compared to other versions, Windows 8 especially depends on the hardware,” and added, “There are not a lot of devices which can utilize the Windows 8 touch feature, which is why the market share is relatively low.”
On the other hand, MS plans to release Windows 8.1 on October 18 (Korean time), with consumer-suggested corrections such as reviving the Start button. Although this is to increase the Windows 8 OS demand, it is uncertain how much attention the new version will receive. Last year, MS spent US$1.5 billion, the largest amount of money in marketing, on Windows 8.