Windows 7 Sales Spike to Overtake Mac OS X

Someone loves Windows 7

Proving there is no accounting for taste Microsoft's latest attempt at a decent operating system, Windows 7, is now running on 5% of the computers online. The daily average of online users as measured by Internet metrics company Net Applications showed that an increase last week put Windows 7 above all Apple's Mac OS X software being used.

Apple users, that is those using Mac OS X, only account for 5% of people online according to Net Applications so when Windows 7 users spiked up over the 5% mark last week the new operating system overtook Apple. Now I know that PCs dominate the market but I was personally shocked that so few people actually run Apple's stuff.

Back in the day PC makers opened their platforms up to third party developers while Apple kept a tight control over theirs. While this allows for Apple to keep tabs on what is going on with their systems it turns a lot of developers off or completely shuts them out. Why not take the easier path of making software for the PC?

Microsoft is king of PC software makers, that's no secret. But with a series of high profile flops the last couple of years they have lost some of their luster. Windows Vista, the supposed savior of their company turned out to completely worthless. It was so bad that Microsoft went on a guerilla marketing campaign and tricked people into using it calling it "Project Mojave". I never had a lot of exposure to Vista, so I can't say whether or not it was the second coming but from what I hear and have seen it was riddled with holes.

These kinds of missteps combined with the growing popularity of Apple computers on college laptops has led to more people checking out Apple computers. Now that almost everyone has an Apple iPod or iPhone it seems people are coming around to using Apple computers more and more.

Unfortunately, the market is flooded with PCs and PC users. They have been indoctrinated by years at work and schools that PCs were the only way to go. These same people that complain about viruses and their computers constantly breaking down won't take the leap to Apple. Some cite higher prices as their reasons for not buying Apple computers but in the end you end up paying more with fixes and software to block all the nasty stuff out there designed to infect PCs.

I do have to tip my hat to Microsoft though. It does seem as though they have a decent operating system going on there. I still would take Mac OS X any day of the week and twice on Sundays over it but Windows 7 addresses a lot of problems that people had with the older systems. The sales have done well for Microsoft as well; Steve Balmer claims that they have sold more Windows 7 operating systems than any other in the same time frame. While this may be linked to more computers being out there it is still a good sign for Microsoft.

Bill Gates could show up at my house with a pizza, a 12 pack and strippers and I still wouldn't swap out my Apple for a PC!

Photo Credits: russeâ„“â„“