On July 29 2015, Windows 10 operating system was launched in China, which caused a stir among Chinese users. On the first day of the release, Microsoft had announced the adoption within 24 hours was 14 million copies in China. On the third day, Windows 10 OS had been installed on over 67 million computers in China.

According to Statcounter, in July 28, before the official release of Windows 10, Windows 7 remained as the dominant operation systems in China (60.84%), followed by Windows XP (25.05%) and Windows 8.1 (7.68%); and Mac OS X also enjoyed 1.37% of the share before Win10 (0.37%, the preview version).

However, by July 31, less than 48 hours after the release of Windows 10, the Chinese subscribers had been more than that of Mac OS X. The retail edition of Windows 10 Home was officially priced at 888 yuan (US$138.71), Windows 10 Professional 1799 yuan (US$281.02).

Also read: China E-Payment Insights 2015

Windows OS remain in dominant operation systems in China in the first half of 2014 in China and top 3 OS were Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8, followed by Mac OS, Windows Vista and Linux system according to data from Wrating.

Windows XP is the most popular OS in China in H1 2014 though the total there was a slight decrease from 67.35% in Q1 to 63.29% in Q2. Windows 7 had a small increase of market share in Q2 and Windows 8, which was launched last year, increased from 2.11% to 2.76% in Q2 2014. Windows Vista market share further decreased.

With increasing popularity of Apple computers in China, Mac OS market share should probably see continuous growth. Linux is often used by many researchers in universities and computer fans in China.

Also read: Windows Store: China Generating 2nd Highest Number of Downloads on Windows Phone

According to a Microsoft recent blog post, China is generating the second highest number of downloads on Windows Phone from Windows Store.

Sina tech news released on December 18 2013, that Amazon Web Service (AWS) achieved strategic cooperation with cloud valley belonged to China Broadband Capital (CBC). AWS finally was ready to launch AWS in Chinese market.

It’s very likely that AWS and CBC would build data base in Ningxia province and locate operating center in Beijing. The specific cooperation between AWS and CBC was still unclear, but it might refer to Microsoft’s Windows Azure model.

On November 1 2012, Microsoft agreed with 21Vianet Group, a carrier-neutral internet data center services provider in China to launch Microsoft Enterprise Cloud Services Office 365 and Windows Azure in China. Microsoft offered technology support, and 21Vianet Group operated these two cloud services in China. Microsoft successfully avoided telecom value-added services license issues.

Word had been spreading that AWS to enter Chinese market so many times. The most recent rumor was in the beginning of 2013, actually, Amazon did made several preparations for entering Chinese market. Amazon launched Chinese website by the end of 2012 and began recruiting Chinese staff. Seemingly, Amazon was about to enter Chinese market very soon, but then the cooperation negotiation was dominated by Amazon American company and it didn’t end well.

Amazon chose CBC this time probably because the latter’s success in helping Evernote enter Chinese market. AWS had developed over 10 years, in 2001, Amazon global began offering web technology support and operation for offline retailers which was the predecessor of AWS. In 2002, Amazon offered AWS paid services to third parties. Now, AWS was one of the fastest growing business of Amazon, Evercore Partners analysts predicted that Amazon’s market value would surpass USD 50 billion in 2015.

AWS was invincible in the U.S. market, but it faced fierce competition in Chinese market with Alibaba Cloud Computing, Baidu Cloud Storage, Sina Cloud and Ucloud. Ucloud CEO told media that AWS entering Chinese market would be a good thing for Chinese cloud services companies, because of its high-profile in cloud services could help developing Chinese market.

AWS still faced localized operation difficulties, Ucloud CEO said that if AWS want to win Chinese market, they need to focus on product development, technology support and sales. Kaifu Lee once told media in May 2013, that the era of global enterprises operating their businesses in China through its subsidiary coporations had failed, AWS could only had the chance to compete in Chinese market by authorizing its technology to a single Chinese company.

ZDC, which is ZOL Data Center, published a research on China netizen mobile app usage in 2013. By collecting 659 effective questionnaires out of 669 from ZOL website, ZDC released the key findings of their app usage report.

Key Findings

Chinese smartphone users surpassed 98%, during which about 60% were Android users.

Most users installed more than 20 apps, iOS users tended to install more apps.

80% smartphone users’ frequently used apps were below 10, 60% Android owners often used 5-10 apps. iOS had relatively high app usage frequency.

Most people downloaded apps from third-party app stores, iOS and Windows Phone users were more likely to download from app store of the system.

IM and SNS apps were the most popular apps, with 90% installation rate.

70% users hadn’t downloaded paid apps, Android users had the highest rate of not downloading paid apps.

Most users paid below 20 yuan (USD 3.26), Android users paid the least for apps.

Mobile users were inclined to pay for game apps.

Android users were most unlikely to pay for apps in the future, enough free apps became the main reason for not paying.

In August 2013, Windows Operating System XP occupied about 60% market share by volume, ranking the first. Windows 7 ranked the second, with 27.28% market share by volume, only half of Windows XP. All Windows OP market share dropped a little in August, except for Windows 8.

In the recent 6 months, Windows market share kept decreasing from 96.52% to 91.32%. It was same with Mac, dropped from 0.36% to 0.31%. Linux went up a little in August.

In contrast, Embedded System increased from 2.73% to 8.1%, eating away Windows market share.

Kantar Worldpanel ComTech report showed that mobile manufacturers launched a series of big screen smartphones in the past 12 months. Samsung Galaxy and Note, HTC One, Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi all launched 4-inch smartphone. By the end of June, more than half of smartphone users owned 3 to 3.9 inches smartphones, but 4-4.5 inches smartphones market share was twice of last year, growing from 12.5% to 29.1%. Big screen smartphone might become the market dominant.

In Q2, Android smartphones market share by sales volume dropped to 67.8%, with a QoQ decrease of 4.1%. Windows phone market share by sales volume  increased from 1.8% in Q1 to 4.9% in Q2. iPhone occupied about 25% market share by sales volume.

By the end of June 2013, Android dominated smartphone with 56% market share, with 41% increase compared to last year. Symbian was the biggest loser, with only 20.3% market share and 14.3% less than last year. According to Kantar Worldpanel, if iphone launch cheaper smartphones, it will probably become the second largest mobile operating system.

iPhone 4 and 4s market share by sales volume reached 58.2%, while iPhone 5 only occupied one third of iPhone total sales.