Last month was the first full month of worldwide availability of the new Windows 8.1 OS, but according to data from Net Applications, Windows 8 and 8.1 gained just 0.05%, with Windows 8 falling 0.87% and Windows 8.1 jumping 0.92%. Interestingly, Windows 7 managed to gain more market share than Windows 8 and 8.1 combined, with a gain of 0.22%, a worrying sign for windows. Nonetheless, Windows still thoroughly dominates global market share, hovering at a cool 90.88% in total. So ultimately, the biggest concern has to be the slow adoption of the new operating systems rather than its global share more broadly.
Tag: Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows Store Hits 100,000 Apps
In an important milestone marking its ascendancy into competition with iOS and Android, the Windows app store bassed 100,000 apps in the Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT store. For comparison, iOS and Android each have over 800,000 apps available in their respective stores, and Windows has been aggressively pursuing developers in an attempt to reach similar numbers – including paying up to $100,000 to developers to bring their apps over to Windows. So although it has some catching up to do numerically, this is still an important moment for the mobile competitor.
Hand Recognition Coming To Kinect
With an updated SDK expected in a few weeks, Microsoft’s Kinect will incorporate hand gesture recognition which will allow for more sophisticated interactions like pinch-to-zoom. We’ve seen this functionality with the much-hyped Leap Motion but Kinect is far and away the leader in bringing gesture controls to the mass market.
Spotify Finally Arrives for Windows Phone 8
For three months, Windows phone users have been kept from Spotify. The app wasn’t released on the Windows platform immediately, but it’s now up in the store as a beta version. The original Windows Phone 7 Spotify app was built through a third party via Microsoft funding, with the goal being to get the app onto the app store as soon as possible to fuel the demand. The issue for Microsoft was that after the shift to 8, the app had to be rebuilt from the ground up, which explains the three-month lag time. But, the wait is officially over, and the app is ready to download, now across the full spectrum of platforms.
