Root Cause of Windows 7 Market Share Increase

As reported by the Net Market Share, the Windows 10 has significantly increased its market share by 9.85% over the period starting from April 2016 to February 2017. There was slight change in the market share of the other Windows shares as the Windows XP lost its market share by 2.18% and the Windows 8.1 also lost in the similar manner by 2.98%. But, a figure which astonished all the gurus and the market predictors was the increase in the market share of Windows 7 which has increase over the same period by 0.59% (see the stats from 47.82% in February 2016 to the 48.41% in February 2017).

In January 2016, Microsoft announced that from now onward, it will stop to support the older versions of Windows, such as, Windows 7 or Windows 8. This provoked a lot among the customers and due to heavy hue and cry of anger from the customers, the company stepped back and announced that it would support only the Sky Lake PCs running the Windows 7 and 8.1, but all future silicon platforms, would require the Windows 10 for continued support.

Even the PCs running the Intel seventh generation Kaby Lake and AMD Bristol Ridge processors will require the Windows 10 to get technical support.

The significant positive change in the market share of Windows 10 of 25.19% looks to be obviously due to the huge promo campaign, run by Microsoft, allowing to get the convert from all previous versions to Windows 10. That’s the reason the market share of all the previous version of Windows XP and Windows 8.1 have gone down. Even the layman may safely claim that the Windows XP and Windows 8.1 users switched to the Windows 10 but the same did not happen with that of Windows 7. The question is; why?

There are many reasons for the positive change in the market share of the Windows 7. Some of the major reasons are discussed below:

Why Windows 7 users did not convert to the Windows 8.1 or 10?

As compared to the Windows 8.1, which is rapidly losing the market share (during the same period, Widows 8.1 lost market share of 2.98%, i.e. from 9.85 in April 2016 to 6.87% in February 2016. On the other hand, Windows 7 is still occupying the lions’ share of the market which is 48.41% as on February 2017.

First Reason

The first reason of Windows XP users of not converting their PCs to Windows 10 is that the large number of PCs, running the Windows XP, were not comfortable with the newer versions due to newer interface. They preferred to keep on using the Windows 7, refuting the Windows 8.1 and even Windows 10.

This can happen as some of the Windows XP and Windows Vista users preferred to opt for the Windows 7 as it looks to be easier to operate for some of the users of Windows XP. As the Windows 8.1 was a total change in the working interface, perhaps majority of the previous users of Windows XP thinks like this.

Second Reason

The majority of the PCs, running the Windows XP, are not compatible with Windows 10 as they cannot run the Windows 10, smoothly or even not at all. This is the failure of the Microsoft that it did not provide the necessary arrangement and mechanism for the older PCs to run the newer version of operating systems. To solve their problem, Microsoft must launch some version of Windows 10 which may help the PCs, running the Windows XP or Windows 7, to run the Windows 10 as well.

Corporate Affairs: Did all Windows XP users switch to Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or even to Windows 10?

Simple answer is; No. Mostly, there are technical issues at the corporate level, such as, the following:

Extraordinary Capital Expense Involved

If the current system of the corporate data base is replaced to the Windows 10, the servers, workstations and the necessary technical structure may require a huge amount of capital, which the corporate world is hesitating to incur so heavy investment. In the absence of any technical incentive to replace the current infrastructure, the corporate BIGs look to be least interested for the change. Such corporate change may prove to be financially disastrous for many smaller or less financially strong organizations.

Leaving aside weaker foreign organizations, the financially healthy U.S. corporate entities are also reluctant to take this adventure.

Training of Professionals to Work Upon Advanced Versions of Windows

Other than the capital investment issue, the training of the work force looks to be bigger issue. If the total networking structure is changed without the proper training and development of the workforce, whole the system may collapse due to lack of expertise at the individual levels. This may cause huge damage to the routine working in addition to the disastrous damage to the hardware as well. The only solution to the problem is wide spread training which requires a lot of corporate investment, the temporary removal of the work force from the normal working for training and the general slow down even after the training. This is one of the major hurdles in the shift of the entire corporate IT structure from Windows 7 to the Windows 10 as financially the training of the existing workforce and employees may be more costly than the joint capital investment and licensing.

Current Licensing of Windows 7 Issue

Licensing for the usage of the Windows 7 operating system for the corporate PCs is one of the crucial issues for not transferring to Windows 10. Till the expiry of the licensing to use the Windows 7, the corporations are hesitating to discontinue the current licensing. On the other hand, there looks to be no incentive from the Microsoft for such conversion. So, it is expected that the Major part of the current setup will continue till the end of the concerned individual licensing perhaps in years 2017, 2018 and even in the 2019 till the end of overall support for the Windows 7 on January 14, 2020.

This is all despite the fact that the Microsoft has already made it clear that the businesses and the Windows Enterprise licenses with software assurance as well as the ones with KabyLake systems can have extended support till the January 14, 2020 for the Windows 7 and the January 10, 2023 for the Windows 8.1.

Major Flaw, causing hurdles in upgrdation of the current PCs and the operating system to the Windows 10

One of the basic flaws, found in the installation and activation process of the Windows 7 and the Windows 10, looks to be basic cause of increase in the Windows 7 market share. Microsoft has made essential Online activation feature for the Windows 8 and further versions, right from the Microsoft site, or the Windows will stop operating after set date. This is an excellent feature to stop the fraud usage of the pirated editions and versions of the Windows, causing a handsome revenue to the Microsoft. But, this basic feature is enhancing the popularity of the Windows 7 version as this version can be installed on any type of the PCs as many of the pirated editions of Windows 7 are available in the local markets which are pre-activated.

If the regional analysis of the popularity is secured, it will appear that the Windows 7 is hugely popular and still activated in most of the regions of poor part of the World. In millions of PCs in poor areas of China, India and even in the other poorer parts of the World, the Windows 7 is still popular as financially-deprived people of these countries are unable to purchase the licensing of the high-priced Windows 8 or the later editions.

Microsoft should analyze the return and revenue of the Windows 7, if upgraded to the Windows 10. Experts should also evaluate the return from the sale of the apps and other software from the upgraded Windows 7 PCs.

Now, the time for the Microsoft financial experts is there to chalk out a minimum yet breakeven price to receive for the upgradation of the current versions of Window 7 to Windows 10 from the poor people of the World.

This will be the GREAT CAHRITY from the Microsoft for the deprived World.

Source: NetMarketShare