There are already 110 million Windows 10 users, according to Microsoft, but the new operating system still accounts for less than 10 percent of global desktop market share and adoption is slowing, according to the latest numbers from NetMarketShare.
Windows 10 gained just over 1 percent of total market share in the last month. It appears that the initial batch of users who planned to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 have already done so.
The decline in Windows 7 and 8.1 use, which started with the introduction of Windows 10 in July as a free upgrade for those users, has even started to level off. While more than 3 percent of desktops ditched Windows 7 in August, less than 1 percent switched away from it in October.
Windows 7 still dominates the marketplace, with NetMarketShare finding that more than half of all desktops still run the operating system that debuted in 2009. Both Windows XP and Windows 8.1 also take up more of the desktop operating share than Windows 10.
While Windows 10 is a free upgrade for all Windows 7 and 8.1, some users, particularly those in enterprise, hold out on upgrading because some critical software is built specifically for certain operating systems. As that software is slowly upgraded, expect to see an uptick in adoption among those users.
Some users might have also been put off by the upgrade process, which required reserving a copy of Windows 10 and then having to wait for your turn to upgrade. However, a new upgrade system is rolling out now aims to make switching to Windows 10 easier.
Microsoft shouldn’t be too worried about their adoption rate though. More people are still using Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite than have upgraded to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan, which came out as a free upgrade at the end of September.
