Windows 10 ends 2015 with less than 10 percent of the desktop operating system market

By Jason Hahn Published January 2, 2016

For all the attention Windows 10 got in 2015 and the fact that the new operating system was free for many users, it may be surprising to hear that Microsoft’s desktop operating system ended the year with less than 10 percent market share.

As of December 2015, Windows 10 claimed 9.96 percent of the global desktop operating system market, according to Net Applications. Windows 7 led the way with 55.68 percent of the market, followed by Windows XP with 10.93 percent and Windows 8.1 with 10.30 percent. Mac OS X 10.11 had 2.99 percent of the market.

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Overall, Windows had 91.32 percent of the market, Mac OS had 7.02 percent, and Linux had 1.66 percent, according to VentureBeat.

In August, its first month of availability, Windows 10 was downloaded 75 million times, according to Microsoft. During that first month, Windows 10 claimed 5.21 percent of the market, more than Mac OS X 10.10. The new operating system was free for users on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1.

The first major update to Windows 10, codenamed Redstone, is scheduled for a summer 2016 release. Sources say the upgrade will focus on features related to seamlessly jumping between Windows devices and apps, as well as introducing extensions for Microsoft’s Edge browser.

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Jason Hahn is a part-time freelance writer based in New Jersey. He earned his master's degree in journalism at Northwestern…

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