Windows 7 Sales Also Boot Faster Than Vista

It took about a year for Windows Vista to claim 10 percent market share, something its successor, Windows 7, has managed in just three months. New data from Net Applications show Microsoft’s latest operating system accounting for one in 10 computers accessing the Web as of the end of January.

Not much of a surprise, really, since Microsoft (MSFT) said during last week’s earnings report that it shipped a record number of copies of Windows during the December quarter. The company has sold some 60 million Windows 7 licenses since launching the operating system on Oct. 22, with returning consumer demand driving a healthy 35 percent year-to-year increase in Windows licensing revenue for the quarter.

Clearly, Windows 7 is on a nice hot streak right now–something, I think it’s safe to say, that never happened with Vista. But is this streak driven by the broader PC market rebound that began prior to the operating system’s launch or by Windows 7 itself?