Microsoft previously declared a goal of ensuring that more than one billion devices are powered by Windows 10 by 2018 but it has ended up having to manage expectations as growth as slowed particularly after the free upgrade offer expired earlier this year. It extended the timeline, acknowledging that “it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices.” Latest stats show that Windows 10 is now running on more than 400 million computers across the globe.
For the first year after launch Windows 10 was being offered as a free upgrade to all those who were on Windows 7 or Windows 8 and above. This is one of the major reasons why Microsoft’s latest OS saw high adoption numbers soon after its release.
More than 30 million additional machines would join the Windows 10 fold every month when the offer was active but that’s no longer the case. Even those who are upgrading from the aforementioned versions now are having to pay north of $100 to upgrade to Windows 10 and that has had an effect on the adoption numbers.
Microsoft is now seeing a monthly growth rate of just about 16 million additional devices and with declining PC sales it’s having to adjust expectations even though it remains committed to its aim to having Windows 10 on more than a billion machines across the globe. At this rate it may have to wait until 2020 to reach that significant milestone, Microsoft is yet to provide a new timeline for this aim.
Filed in . Read more about Microsoft and Windows 10. Source: zdnet