Windows 7 gains but IE loses in January

Windows 7 already makes up a tenth of all web traffic online, according to new Net Applications data for January. The OS released just in late October now just broke past 10 percent use on the web at the end of last month. It also made large strides for the whole period and had an average 7.51 percent of web traffic, or a jump of more than a third over December.

As a whole, Windows still lost share to reach 92.02 percent but only partly to Mac OS X, which gained very slightly to reach 5.13 percent. Most of the losses were credited to mobile platforms like the iPhone (0.47 percent) and Java ME (0.59 percent). Linux stayed flat at 1.02 percent.

Microsoft also lost out in web browser usage share during January but chiefly to Google's Chrome. Internet Explorer again reached an all-time low of 62.18 percent where Chrome grew by more than half a point to 5.2 percent. Apple's Safari only increased a small amount but reached a new high of 4.51 percent, while Firefox actually fell to 24.41 percent.

Reasons for both the OS and browser shifts weren't given. However, Microsoft would have benefited from sales of new PCs during the holiday while Google likely drew help from both Chrome 4.0 for Windows and continued adoption of the Mac beta.

Windows 7 trending throughout January



OS share for January



Web browser share for January

By Electronista Staff