Most of us will remember a rather dramatic introduction of Windows Vista several years ago. With a lot of marketing power users were forced to switch to a not very well performing new operating system. There were many complaints about the big amount of bugs and the poor performance. Microsoft seemed to ignore the complaints, but after a while they had to conclude Windows Vista was not the right way to go. Quite soon after the Vista introduction it became clear Microsoft was aiming to launch a new OS. Windows 7 should make us forget about the Vista debacle and should be able to compete with the very user friendly Apple OSX. New data shows Microsoft has learned from the past mistakes.

Some time ago we already showed Microsoft seemed to be doing well with Windows 7. Based on our own experience we can approve Windows 7 is faster, more user friendly, more reliable and the compatibility with other hardware and software improved. Still Windows 7 is rather resource consuming. You need a powerful laptop or PC with preferably over 2 GB of memory to benefit from most of the improvements.

Recent data shows Windows 7 is probably going to be Microsoft’s most successful market introduction till today. According to Netmarketshare they already managed to achieve a market share of  nearly 10% by the end of January, 2010. Probably it won’t surprise you that the adoption of Windows 7 in the Redmond area in the US is way higher, 42%. As you might know this is Microsoft’s home base.

Microsoft’s overall market share is still about 92% and this is hardly changing lately. In some years time Microsoft plans to stop supporting Windows XP. This will mean that Microsoft will have to think about an offer you cannot refuse. Windows XP still has a market share of over 60%!

Probably it will be easier to stop the Vista support. Just 20% of the market is using Vista. Feel free to share your opinion and experiences below.