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Windows 8 crashes 55 percent less and is 84 percent less frustrating than Windows 7, according to a new report.

PC optimization software Soluto helps over three million people in 182 countries get more out of their PCs. Along the way, the company learns a lot about what people do … and how their software works. Fortunately for us, the company shared that data a couple of days ago.

Here are some of the highlights:

European nations such as Hungary and Portugal are adopting Windows 8 quickly, with almost 9 percent adoption in Hungary and 5.29 percent in Portugal. China is also moving quickly, with more than seven percent of Windows users already on Microsoft’s new operating system. Americans, however, are adopting more of wait and see approach, with only 3.4 percent of Windows users updating.

In addition, with the touch-friendliness of Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 8 is penetrating the tablet market much more effectively than Windows 7. For example, while less than two percent of Windows 7 machines are tablets, almost five percent of Windows 8 machines are, in fact, tablet computers — before Surface has really had a chance to make an impact yet.

Not actually a Windows 8 install disc

Interestingly, desktop use is also slightly higher, with almost 51 percent of Windows 8 installs being on a desktop PC, versus 48.5 percent of Windows 7 installs being on a laptop.

Some apps, Soluto found, crash less frequently on Windows 8.

That includes Google Drive, which is the most common app crash culprit on Windows 7, crashing for almost a third of all users (I guess companies can be great at everything). In Windows 8, however, Google Drive crashes for only one percent of users. TuneUp Utilities is another in the much-improved category, moving from crashing for 20 percent of its users on Windows 7 to five percent on Windows 8.

Some apps, of course, crash more on Windows 8. Facebook Video Calling, for instance, crashes at least once a month for a rather unlucky 13 percent of its users, compared to just one percent on Windows 7. And Apple’s iTunes software, often maligned for being bloated, crashes almost twice as much on Window 8.

Soluto also tracks PC brands that users have purchase. The top PC brands being used by Windows 8 early adopters are HP and Dell, with most than 30 percent of the market, followed in fourth and fifth spot by Asus and Acer:

1. 16.83% – HP
2. 14.65% – Dell
3. 10.71% – Gigabyte
4. 10.32% – Asus
5. 8.72% – Acer

One thing about crashing apps: Third-party developers don’t have a lock on them. Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer still crashes about the same amount on Windows 8 as it always has.

photo credit: gynti_46 via photopin cc, Robert Couse-Baker via photopin cc

The most obvious result of the report is fairly monumental: Eight out of 10 American companies are now on Facebook. In a sense, that’s not surprising. But it is a high-watermark worth noting. In addition, 45 percent of American companies are on Twitter, and 31 percent have a YouTube account. In sharp contrast with the American results, however, only 50-60 percent of European companies are on Facebook.

New York-based Niels Schillewaert, managing partner for the company’s U.S.-based operations, spoke to VentureBeat today about the report.

“We wanted to get a feel for what companies do in social media and how that ties into their company culture,” he said.

Five other countries were included in the survey: Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany, and the UK. There were two main surprises:

“First, a lot of companies adopt tools and techs before they look at the strategy. And second, if we look at the companies that have adopted social, they’re continuing to invest. But the ones that are not yet using social don’t really seem to be starting.”

The other difference that became apparent was that, while American companies like to try more strategies faster, European companies that actually do invest in social tend to do it in a relatively thoughtful, considered way.

“American companies have a tendency to experiment more,” Schillewaert told VentureBeat. “European companies tend to think twice and, when they adopt, they integrate at the same time.”

Integration brings social into the company culture, embedding social methodologies into company processes, including marketing, product development, customer service, employee communication, and more.

And companies that integrate see significant benefits.

The report measured integration along the four axes of content, collaboration, customer experience, and conversation, and found that companies that score high have 23 percent more satisfied employees and are recommended 27 percent more by their own staff.

The fact that one industry, health care, is notably lagging won’t surprise many Americans.

Only 43 percent of health care companies are on Facebook, and they fall behind on most of the other platforms as well. Not surprisingly, media companies led the way, followed by travel and leisure companies and consumer goods/retail companies.

InSites Consulting was founded in 1997 and has offices in New York, Belgium, The Netherlands, London, and Romania.

View the entire report here:

Countries in Asia and the Indian subcontinent are far outpacing the U.S. and Europe when it comes to tech adoption, according to stats published today by analyst demigod Mary Meeker.

The report shows massive growth, both in data-capable cell phones and Internet adoption, in countries like Japan, China, the Philippines, India, and Korea. While the U.S. is still leading in the total number of 3G mobile subscribers and the total number of Internet users for a single country, it’s clear that other regions are gearing up to swipe those titles, and fast.

Meeker’s research also shows a disturbing trend, however: Very slow mobile and Internet growth in the developing world. Throughout Africa and South America, in some of the areas that most need better access to life-changing information, Internet adoption has lagged.

For example, Nigeria is the only country from both of those continents to make the top-10 list for Internet adoption, access, and population penetration. Today, only about one third of Nigeria’s citizens have Internet access.

And only four countries from these two regions (Nigeria again, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil) are in the top-30 list of countries for 3G mobile penetration, and percentage penetration ranges from six to 21 percent in these countries.

Here’s a visual breakdown of Meeker’s spredsheets, courtesy of your friendly spreadsheet jockeys at VentureBeat:

Graphics by Jolie O’Dell. Top image courtesy of Supri Suharjoto, Shutterstock

The myth that Macs aren’t welcome in the enterprise appears to be finally dying out, according to new research from Forrester. The company reports that almost 50 percent of businesses in North America and Western Europe now issue Mac computers.

While the focus of many “Apple in the enterprise” headlines focus on iPad business adoption, Mac computers are seeing surprisingly strong adoption numbers too.

Forrester’s new report, titled “Apple Infiltrates The Enterprise And Reshapes The Markets For Personal Devices At Work” surveyed more than 3,300 IT professionals in North America and Western Europe and found that 46 percent of enterprises were issuing Macs to employees. Those employees receiving Macs tend to be “senior in rank, higher paid, younger, and in emerging markets,” and managers are much more likely to have Apple products than regular employees. Notably, only 36 percent of small businesses reported issuing Macs in 2011, and that number is stagnant from 2010.

As we’ve noted before, iPad and iPhone support and interest in support is on the rise as well. Forrester says that 27 percent of companies are supporting the iPad, and another 31 percent are looking into supporting it. Not surprisingly, iPhone support is more common than iPad support, with 37 percent of businesses now supporting the iPhone. Support for the iPhone is projected to rise to 55 percent in 2012.

Overall, Forrester believes Microsoft’s dominance in the enterprise is quickly coming to a close. With Apple penetration rising and Microsoft posting minuscule mobile numbers, Microsoft is losing one of its strongholds. The one area Microsoft will continue to hold onto is productivity software. Its Office software is available on both Macs and PCs, and employees prefer it over any other productivity software option.