In the month of February, according to Net Applications, Windows 8 gained 0.4% of the desktop market, moving from 2.26 to 2.67%. In comparison, Windows 7 had a market share of over 9% after four months of public availability. A growth rate of 0.4% is absolutely horrendous, and — if we assume that PCs are replaced every five years — actually below the natural attrition/replacement rate. If growth of 0.4% wasn’t bad enough, it’s also worth pointing out that it’s down from 0.5% in January — yes, Windows 8 adoption is slowing down. Windows 7, after a small dip last month, actually gained market share in February.

Desktop operating system market share, as of February 2013

Windows 8′s nonexistent growth is mirrored by the Windows 8 Store, where the number of apps — as tracked by MetroStore Scanner — now sits at 44,650. This is up by around 4,000 since the beginning of February — and a similar gain of around 4,000 was seen in January. A 10% growth rate might sound all right, but it’s very worrying that it isn’t accelerating. If the Windows 8 Store grows by 4,000 apps per month, then we’ll be well into 2014 before the 100,000 threshold is crossed. It’s worth noting that the Windows 8 Store is still stuffed full of useless, filler apps — and the inherent brokenness of the Store, as exposed by ExtremeTech back in December, still hasn’t been fixed.

At this point, it isn’t entirely clear how Microsoft intends to spur the adoption of Windows 8. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but Windows Vista actually enjoyed faster growth than Windows 8 — and we know all too well how the Vista story played out. Despite selling Windows 8 at a massively discounted price of $40 for three months (it’s now $200), and sales boosts from Black Friday and Christmas, it’s clear that Windows 8 has failed to take off. Short of giving away Windows 8 for free, there isn’t a whole lot that Microsoft can do — and even then, there are still millions of consumers and business customers that are perfectly happy with Windows 7 and leery of Windows 8′s Metro Start screen.

This situation must surely pose a bit of a problem to Microsoft, which desperately needs an operating system that will grab the company by the balls and successfully insert it into mobile market. Windows and Office are cash cows for now, but the desktop market has started to contract — slowly at first, but it will accelerate. With the mobile market exploding, Windows Phone failing to grab significant market share on the smartphone, and minuscule tablet market share for Windows 8, it doesn’t look good for Microsoft.

Now read: Windows 8: The disastrous result of Microsoft’s gutless equivocation – or if you’re one of the few people who actually use Windows 8, check out our tips and tricks for making Windows 8 less useless.

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/149762-four-months-in-windows-8-adoption-is-almost-at-a-standstill

Yeah i read that on a dutch news website as well. The adoption rate is even slower than it was with Windows Vista.

I did type in super duper in attempt to lighten up the sadness I feel about Windows 8 not doing well if nothing else..... hehehehehehe..........

Has Microsoft ever made two decent operating systems in a row?

I wish there was a desktop version of Android, the battle would've been more interesting to watch.

But Windows 8 losing to windows 7? Boring.

It'd be just Linux vs Windows then :P

Windows releases follow the Star Trek formula - every other one sucks.

Obviously, keeping Win7, passing up on Win8, and waiting for Win9 is the correct answer.

It's progressing at replacement rate, as people buy new PCs. This isn't 'disastrous', as it means people are neither seeking out nor avoiding Win8 specifically.

The features of Win8 are irrelevant and won't transform anything, for example the fortunes of Windows Phone or Surface tablets.

there is just no reason to change from 7. even if 8 would get a lot of praise i would not buy it because i like my windows 7 and as long as i can use it for everything i want i won't buy something new.

but that shows maybe also that sales of notebooks and desktop pcs are very low which i don't really like to hear and that should be the reason why even vista had a higher adoption rate.

^This. It's still higher than any Mac OS though so I don't think MS is really worried.