Vista?s market share begins to fall

Windows Vista, Microsoft’s divisive operating system, has for the first time seen its market share fall as the IT industry prepares for the official release of Windows 7.

According to new data published by research group Net Applications, Vista had lost 0.2 per cent of the market in September, ending with an 18.6 per cent share.

The OS’s successor, Windows 7, saw its share jump 0.3 per cent in the same month, despite not being available to the public at large.

If market share declines continue for Vista, as many are predicting, then the OS will have only captured a fifth of the market at its very peak.

By contrast, its predecessor XP remains the most popular OS in use today, being used on 71.5 per cent of all computers, according to Net Applications’ estimates.

Net Applications monitors a section of internet users to calculate a global average.

The research group added that, despite the failings of Vista, Microsoft still holds 92.8 per cent of the entire OS market.