Windows Market Share Continues To Stagnate

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.  

Chrome Adds Touch-Friendly Features

Google looks to be adding a host of touch-friendly features for its Chrome browser. In its latest Canary beta, a new slide-to-navigate feature – almost identical to that in IE 10 or Windows 8 – has been added, and pinch-to-zoom is now in the code as well. These new additions make sense in the context of the new touchscreen Chromebook Pixel, as well as the new Windows 8 OS. The new features will outfit the browser for the next generation of touch-screen devices and operating systems.

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.