Windows 7 surpasses Windows XP’s market share

When it comes to the lion’s share of operating systems that run on personal computers, Microsoft’s Windows takes the cake – and has done so for more than a decade and a half already. The thing is this, with a fair number of Windows releases already, which one tops it all off? Not necessarily the newest version – not at least until today, where Windows XP was finally knocked off its perch by Windows 7 as the most popular operating system in the world. Guess Windows Vista owners can just go to their corner and sulk.

To say that Windows 7 has been a huge success for Microsoft is an understatement, where it managed to win back naysayers who were “burnt” by the Windows Vista experience. It seems that Microsoft has sold some 450 million copies of Windows 7, according to the company claimed at its recent BUILD event.

That would place Windows 7 at the top of the heap with 40.17% of the market, while Windows XP, the venerable operating system still commands 38.72% of the market in second place. Don’t you think that the changing of guard took rather long, considering how old Windows XP is?