HP leads Microsoft in Metro app usage

Only 17 percent of Microsoft's usage was on Surface Pros, showing that people who have a choice rarely chose Metro apps

Microsoft is not No. 1 when it comes to usage of apps with the Metro interface. AdDuplex, which monitors 8,500 Windows Store and Windows Phone apps, took a snapshot of usage statistics for 941 Windows Store apps on Sept. 22. Based on that snapshot, Hewlett-Packard has the highest usage of Metro apps, at 20 percent, with Microsoft in second place at 15 percent and Dell close behind at 13 percent.

The original Surface RT accounts for 9.8 percent of all Metro app usage. Combined with the Surface 2, more than 12 percent of all Metro apps surveyed were running on Microsoft's ill-fated original Windows RT tablets.

Remarkably, 67 percent of Microsoft's usage came from the original Surface RT. When it comes to using Metro apps, the two Surfaces that run Windows RT -- and are thus limited to Metro apps -- combined to account for 83 percent of usage. The Surface Pro machines, which aren't confined to Metro apps, only drew 17 percent.

Translation: People who have a choice rarely chose Metro apps.

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Woody Leonhard is a columnist at Computerworld and author of dozens of Windows books, including "Windows 10 All-in-One for Dummies."