Windows XP still dominant OS despite decline

It may be down for the count, but it's still the reigning champ —by a hairsbreadth.

Despite its decline in recent months, Microsoft's 10-year-old operating system Windows XP remains the most popular OS, according to figures from analytics firm NetApplications.

While XP has been losing users to Windows 7, Microsoft's current flagship OS, it enjoyed a small resurgence last January.

Its data showed that, while XP's share went down from 56.78 prcent in March 2011 to 46.52 percent in December 2011, its share went up to 47.19 percent in January 2012.

On the other hand, Windows 7's share suffered a slight dip in January, at 36.40 percent. Its share had been going up from 25.23 percent in March 2011 to 36.99 percent in December 2011.

"Obviously, a fraction of a percentage point is nothing for XP to crow about, especially since its overall share has dropped from almost 58 percent a year ago. But it does point to the continued popularity of an OS that Microsoft would like to see kick the bucket," tech site CNET said.

Windows Vista, the OS version between XP and 7, saw its share continue to decline from 11.02 percent in March 2011 to 8.22 percent in January 2012.

Apple's Mac OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) saw its share go down from 3.65 percent in March 2011 to 2.95 percent in January.

OSX 10.7 (Lion) saw its share go up from 0.01 percent in March 2011 to 2.18 percent in January 2012.