Avast PC Trends Report 2019 Reveals Over Half of PC Software is Out-of-Date, Putting Users at Risk
January 22 2019 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Gathered from 163 million devices, the new
report uncovers the global state of the PC market and finds Adobe
Shockwave, VLC Media Player and Skype are among most out of date
applications
Avast (LSE: AVST), the global leader in digital security
products, today revealed that more than half (55%) of PC
applications installed worldwide are out-of-date, making PC users
and their personal data vulnerable to security risks. Avast’s PC
Trends Report 2019 found that users are making themselves
vulnerable to hackers by not implementing security patches and
keeping outdated versions of popular applications on their PCs. The
applications where updates are most frequently neglected include
Adobe Shockwave (96%), VLC Media Player (94%) and Skype (94%).
The report, which uses anonymized and aggregated data from 163
million devices across the globe, also found that Windows 10 is now
installed on 40% of all PCs globally, which is fast approaching the
43% share held by Windows 7. However, almost one in six (15%) of
all Windows 7 users and one in ten (9%) of all Windows 10 users
worldwide are running older and no longer supported versions of
their product, for example, the Windows 7 Release to Manufacturing
version from 2009 or the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update from
early 2017. Running out-of-date operating systems puts them at risk
from vulnerabilities and other significant security issues.
“Most of us replace our smartphone regularly, but the same
cannot be said for our PCs. With the average age of a PC now
reaching six years old, we need to be doing more to ensure our
devices are not putting us at unnecessary risk,” said Ondrej Vlcek,
President, Avast. “With the right amount of care, such as cleaning
our hardware’s insides using cleaners, optimization and security
products, PCs will be safe and reliable for even longer.”
More people than ever are opting for laptops, tablets, and
2-in-1 PCs running Windows. Although desktops are in no way
obsolete, 67% of users are choosing laptops and tablets, letting
them work, browse and stream on-the-go and this trend is likely to
continue into 2019. This shift to mobile PCs is also reflected in
the most installed applications. Google Chrome jumped to the top of
the list in 2018, increasing its share of installs from 79% to 91%
in the last 12 months.
Adobe Acrobat Reader (60%) came in as the second most popular,
followed by WinRAR (48%), Microsoft Office (45%), and Mozilla
Firefox (42%). Although the fourth most used application worldwide
is Microsoft Office, this is also one of the most out-of-date apps.
Globally, 15% of users still have the Enterprise 2007 version
installed, even though Microsoft no longer issues security patches
or bugs fixes for that product.
The Report also outlines the most popular PC brands, CPUs, RAM
size and hard disks:
- Top five PC brands: globally,
the most widespread PC brands are HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo and
Dell.
- Most CPUs are still dual-core,
with 74% running on two physical cores and only 20% own a quad-core
system.
- RAM: the most popular RAM size
is four GB, which is enough for most day-to-day applications.
- HDD vs. SSD: only 15% of users
own a fast SSD, the rest of users remain on either HDD or a HDD/SSD
combo solution.
The full Avast PC Trends Report 2019 can be downloaded for free
here.
Methodology
The core data used in this report is collected through the
Automatic Software Updater feature, a functionality included in
Avast and AVG security software and consists of anonymized datasets
from a total of 163 million devices. Using a combination of
real-world data and global statistics from Statista and other
sources, this report is able to paint a picture of the state of the
PC in 2018.
Avast Cleanup helps users maintain their PCs to keep them
running like new for longer. For more information, please go to:
https://www.avast.com/cleanup
About Avast
Avast (LSE: AVST) is the global leader in digital security
products. With over 400 million users online, Avast offers products
under the Avast and AVG brands that protect people from threats on
the internet and the evolving IoT threat landscape. The company’s
threat detection network is among the most advanced in the world,
using machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to
detect and stop threats in real time. Avast digital security
products for Mobile, PC or Mac are top-ranked and certified by
VB100, AV-Comparatives, AV-Test, OPSWAT, ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs
and others. Visit: www.avast.com.
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Leonora Flemingleonora.fleming@avast.com+1.781.974.3549
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