Over the past year, Windows XP has dropped by 12 percent to 49.8 percent while Windows 7 has increased by 13.4 percent to 27.9 percent.

As for the , many industry analysts agree that Windows 8 is a tablet OS designed for consumers and to compete with Apple's iPad. This is a smart and necessary strategy for Microsoft, but is not likely to hurt Microsoft's enterprise business, according to analysts.

"Windows 8 is all about the tablet. I think it is dead on arrival for business customers," said IDC research VP Al Gillen in a .