Vista uptake is slow - Net Applications

 

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Posted on 6 Feb 2007 at 12:46

Vista adoption has got off to a slow start according to figures from Net Applications.

Despite a launch of the business version in November, with January ending with the consumer launch, the Vista installed base amounted to 0.18 per cent of the operating system market.

Although Vista adoption remains embryonic for now, it's not unusual. Nearly half of corporate computers were still running Windows 2000 as late as mid 2005, according to AssetMatrix, and this figure had only dropped a few percentage points since 2003. Windows XP was launched in October 2001.

Windows 2000 stills clutches on to nearly five per cent of the overall market, which is still dominated by XP, with 85.02 per cent. Windows versions such as 98 and ME grab a couple of percentage points between them, but either way, it remains true that more than 90 per cent of the world's computers run Windows.

Microsoft, too, isn't worried by Vista's apparent reluctance to get out of the traps. A Microsoft spokesperson told us: 'Many key analysts, press, and other influentials have a positive outlook on Windows Vista adoption rates by businesses and support our projections of a rapid deployment.'

Forrester Research, for example, predicts that 39 per cent of businesses plan to install Vista within a year of its release, with security cited as the main reason for moving to Vista.

The Mac market now accounts for more than six per cent of the market, with Mac OSX running on 4.34 per cent of computers, while the version for Intel's chips hit 1.88 per cent.

Author: Matt Whipp