7 wasn't "flat lining" but on the upward trend when you examine the color for each OS. 7 being green or I should say "in the green"! 8 was down at the bottom along with OS X there while XP was on the largest downswing out of all of them having an intersect with 7.

Seeing the latest Windows at the bottom would have to be 8 since people were far more anxious about Vista at first but 7 prevailed! The supposed downward trend for 7 has yet to be proven however as far as gaming is concerned. Windows 7 Starts Losing Users as Gamers Embrace Windows 8 - Softpedia

I was a little taken to see one old 2001 would still go on and run on the 8 Preview builds but wouldn't rush to replace 7 at all. Notice that one is solely based on one source's findings of who using which OS is far from representing all gamers! In fact 8 is falling behind even more! http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windo...S-341869.shtml

I know that this report is to show the variation in desktop OS usage. However as the basis for the figures is the net access from the devices concerned, I would prefer to see a complete picture.

A major proportion of net access is not now from desktop systems, but from mobile devices, it would be useful to see if and by how much changes in the mobile market affect these figures, I would imagine that increases in mobile net access would affect the access figure for desktops.

Is this a linear relationship, or is one desktop OS suffering more than others?

for example I now access the net when away from base from a tablet or phone, rather than the netbook I used to use, this device is still used and runs Win7 but will be missing from the recent figures - How many other similar access changes are there hidden in the statistics reported

The thing that strikes me?
Win7 at release had as much traffic as Win 8 6 months after release!

Since 8 doesn't see the need for newer better hardwares like more ram then Vista was in need of when the previous was first released on OEMs only running 512mb, 1gb of memory the existing hardwares only need updated driver sets. Unlike the gap between Vista and XP being another problem not seen since 7 drivers will tend to work on 8 like Vista drivers will work on 7 there's another item to note.

The MinWin kernel solved the need for newer and better hardwares required as well as the general slump in the economy overall would explain why even those machines desktops or laptops still found with 7 on them are no longer moving as fast. Plus after this amount of time since 7's launch in Oct. 2009 far more are no longer in need of new machines having already updated their OS from XP or Vista to 7.

The idea that 7 sales are now tanking or flatlining would seem that way since the majority of new pc buyers have already made the move into 7 if needing a new pc in the last few years. Likewise with any new version after 3-4yrs. time the volume of sales will automatically drop off to the greater extent especially for those who custom build and bought the 7 retail full or upgrade media and only need to move the OS onto a new set of hardwares such as a new case they put together.

The math part is easy to figure when looking at these types of factors. XP obvious now 12yrs. old is tanking in nose dive manner being too old for most to consider plus a dying version that will soon no longer see any support just like 2000, ME, Legacy all went the way of the dinosaur for most in years past.