Windows 7 is surging and people are ditching their iPhones – if you believe these charts

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ZDNET’s key takeaways

• Dozens of websites reported this week that Home windows 7 utilization is “skyrocketing.”
• The experiences are based mostly on charts from a notoriously unreliable supply.
• Extra seemingly clarification: Modifications in iOS 26 are complicated analytics trackers.

My information feed was completely overwhelmed this week with headlines telling me that Home windows 7’s market share “skyrocketed” final month, as customers simply mentioned no to Home windows 11.

Then I spotted it is the primary of the month and in fact all these tales are showing as a result of Statcounter Global Stats simply launched its “market share” experiences for the earlier month. Tech reporters can’t resist charts like this one any greater than Mr. Bigglesworth can say no to a bag of contemporary catnip.

Whoa! For those who imagine these numbers, practically 10% of all worldwide visitors from Home windows PCs in September 2025 got here from PCs working Home windows 7, an working system that has been unsupported and out of date for six years.

Significantly?

Additionally: Microsoft has lost its way

Effectively, like I mentioned, “for those who imagine these numbers…” If in case you have no crucial considering abilities in any respect, then in fact you’ll merely write that clearly tens and perhaps tons of of tens of millions of individuals have scoured the web, discovered a bootleg copy of a 16-year-old working system, and put in it on their PCs. After which you’ll make up a narrative about why that occurred.

In fact, none of that occurred. These numbers are full nonsense. StatCounter’s measurements are notoriously inaccurate and unreliable. They bounce round in bizarre methods which might be actually incomprehensible, and so they show completely nothing about any sort of “market share,” as I’ve written extra occasions than I care to recollect. For those who want a refresher, go learn this post.

However what about the remainder of the story?

Anyway, of their haste to unquestioningly report these unbelievable numbers, these tech journalists all missed a fair larger story.

It is proper there on this month’s Statcounter charts. Simply go pull up the Operating System Market Share Worldwide chart for 2025, as I did right here.

In Could 2025, the hole between visitors from Home windows PCs (the blue line) and gadgets working iOS (the grey line) was virtually precisely 7%. Within the 5 months since then, in response to the identical pile of Statcounter GS knowledge that every one these different tales relied on, Home windows has turn into insanely extra well-liked, and an enormous variety of individuals have given up on their iPhones.

Additionally: My favorite iOS 26 feature makes screenshots even more useful – and it’s easy to enable

Based on Statcounter’s knowledge, iOS has misplaced about 20% of its “market share” because the begin of the 12 months, going from 18.11% in January to 14.5% in September. The hole between Home windows PCs and iOS gadgets is now 16%.

That is a few 9% shift in a matter of months, which appears curiously near the inexplicable explosion of recognition in Home windows 7 — and equally unlikely.

So, what occurred right here?

This is not only a Statcounter downside.

After I went to the web site of the US Authorities’s Digital Analytics Program, which tracks visits to web sites run by the Federal authorities, I discovered an analogous sample of knowledge, with Home windows (and Home windows 7 particularly) displaying a bizarre surge in reputation over the previous few months — Yr-to-date visitors from Home windows gadgets is about 32.7%, however that quantity shot as much as 38.1% within the month of September and to 41% within the seven days ending October 1, as visits from gadgets working iOS dropped about the identical quantity.

That means that no matter is inflicting these bizarre measurements has one thing to do with how these visits are being recorded in net analytics logs. The almost definitely reply is fairly apparent if you consider it for a minute.

Additionally: Can’t upgrade your Windows 10 PC? You have 2 weeks to act – and 5 options

All these strains had been flat and static via the month of Could. Then, one thing occurred: iOS 26 — which, not coincidentally, critically messed with model numbers (going from 18 to 26 in a single leap) and added new privateness protections that, amongst different issues, froze the person agent string in Safari.

The Developer Beta of iOS 26 and macOS 26 was launched on June 9, 2025, the identical day as WWDC. The Public Beta arrived on July 24, 2025. Launch candidates confirmed up in early September, and the ultimate public launch of iOS 26 and macOS 26 was on Sept. 15, 2025.

Map these numbers to the chart above and you may see the supposed drop in utilization for iOS because the inhabitants of gadgets working iOS 26 slowly expands, beginning in June and rising larger at a gentle clip in August and September. That is precisely what you’ll anticipate if visitors from these gadgets had been mistakenly being counted as if it was coming from PCs working an historical model of Home windows.

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There are in all probability different elements at work right here, however you do not have to be Sherlock Holmes to seek out the almost definitely wrongdoer.

Can all of us agree that these charts are ineffective and the underlying knowledge is rubbish?

Thanks for coming to my TED speak.