According to figures released by Net Applications on or around 5th November 2009, it would seem that Windows 7 had at that time already taken 3.67% of the operating system market; a 1.68% growth since its launch on 22nd October 2009.Most if not all of the figures released on 22nd October were related to the free release Candidate, but the increasing figures suggest that many users are upgrading their operating systems to Windows 7.

Despite this somewhat explosive growth; it appears also that Windows 7 installations, in the main, are simply replacing older Windows operating systems, rather than capturing market real-estate from competitors. From September to end of October 2009 the Mac’s market-share grew from 5.12% of the market to 5.27%; a rise of 0.15%. Did those users migrate over from Linux or Windows; or are they perhaps using Windows and Mac on separate computers? Maybe they’re new users? It appears that Windows 7 isn’t causing any Mac people to convert at this time.

The overall Windows market share in fact dropped slightly in October. Nevertheless, Windows accounts for 92.52% of the marketing total, according to available figures released on 5th November, compared to 92.77% in September. – It’s growth, then, for both Microsoft and Apple.

That fact could well be due to the timing of Apple’s release of Snow Leopard, as well as the factor of a good pricing policy on their part. The low price of Snow Leopard in comparison to Windows 7 is offset by the high price that Mac users initially paid for their machines; so all in all the cost of running either comes down to a similar figure at the end of the day.

Of course, the figures released by Net Applications quite obviously are more relevant to the USA than globally it would appear, although do correct me if I am wrong. The sales of Macs in America appear to be greater then their global sales figures; so the figures presented herein could paint more of a cloudy picture for Windows 7 than is actually the case.

Whatever the case; it appears that Microsoft have scored  rather well so far with their new operating system. It would be interesting to compare the difference in percentage terms between those Win 7 users who are installing the 64-bit version and those installing the 32-bit version. – I don’t have those figures available currently, but any significant increases in 64-bit usage is sure to increase speed of the heralding-in of the age of 64-bit computing.

Why is this so important? Because although a 64-bit operating system utilises more memory-space for its operation, with an increase in 64-bit computing comes an increase of both operating system and hardware-versatility: Gone is the up-to 4-megabyte memory limitation with 64-bit, and it’ll be a good few years before a motherboard is manufactured that can hold even a single exabyte of RAM. Also advantageous is the fact that 64-bit hardware is far more multi-application-flexible; therefore executing a number of different programs simultaneously puts less strain on the hardware and allows faster operation.

I’ve heard it said amongst certain geeks that standardisation of 64-bit software with regard to a Windows environment will be at least two years in coming: Personally I doubt that, and would estimate that figure to be one year at most. Without the 64-bit-adoption-statistics to hand, however, I can currently only speculate.

What’s your view?