Windows 7 Climbing the Charts, Fights for Market Share

At the root of this hope for change is Microsoft's plan to introduce the Windows Phone 7 Series. This new series of smartphones is aimed directly at the competing Blackberry, iPhone, and various Google Android phones. The Windows Phone 7 Series promises to give consumers a bevvy of attractive features in the realm of gaming, productivity, design, and more. Undoubtedly, this new release of phones, expected in the fall of 2010, should provide a much needed shot in the arm for Microsoft, who finds itself in an uphill battle for market share in the mobile phone game.

Evidence of Microsoft's fight is provided by comScore, an Internet marketing research company that recently published statistics detailing trends within the smartphone arena both in the United States and worldwide. According to the comScore studies, Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform sits in third place in terms of market share in the U.S., trailing Research in Motion and Apple, with Android behind it. In Europe, Windows Mobile is in a dead heat with Apple for second place, with both trailing behind Symbian.

It is evident that Microsoft has a lot of work to do, and they will surely place much attention on the smartphone market, as it is one that has seen increased usage of 18 and 32 percent over the last quarter in the United States and Europe, respectively. The future release of the Windows Phone 7 Series should help, although Apple and Android will be sure to make things difficult.

For more on this topic, visit: http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/paul-thurrotts-wininfo/comScore-Microsoft-Still-a-Strong-Number-Three-in-Phones.aspx

Windows 7 Moving Up the Charts

As time continues to pass, Windows 7 continues to accumulate momentum in the operating system market. That is the good news for Microsoft. The bad news is that the market share gain most likely came at the expense of a drop in market share from its other operating systems, such as Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Windows 7 saw a strong start after its release back in October of 2009. After being just one month old in terms of public availability, Windows 7 had reached the market share mark of four percent. For a comparison, the previous Windows edition of Vista took over half a year to reach a similar mark.

As of now, Windows 7 has surpassed ten percent in market share, according to reports from NetMarketShare, a company that gathers usage share statistics for various Internet technologies. While that is an accomplishment in its own right, the numbers can lie a bit, as Windows actually dropped in overall market share by 0.5 percent since February versus competitors such as Linux and Mac.

The increase in Windows 7 usage was mostly due to consumers upgrading to the OS from older Windows-based platforms like XP and Vista, as those two operating systems' statistics dropped during the same period. While the increase in Windows 7 numbers is promising, whether or not the platform can crack into Linux's and Mac's numbers remains to be seen.

You can read more about Windows 7 and its market share at: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-20001572-56.html?tag=mncol;title