Microsoft has seemingly admitted defeat in its ambitious quest to get Windows 10 onto one billion devices by 2018, citing its own decision to scale back on smartphones as a key reason.
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Remember the target of 1 billion devices running Windows 10?
A spokesperson from the company referred in a statement to its “focusing” on their mobile business for the next period. Microsoft reported sales of only 4.5 million Lumia phones, down by a massive 57% on year-over-year (YoY) basis.
The “phone hardware business” is a factor because the original prediction was based on installations across all devices, including PCs, tablets, and mobiles. But despite Microsoft’s efforts – pulling every dirty trick in the book, and then some, to con users into upgrading – it seems as if the new OS is going to take a while longer to hit that milestone, and blame is being laid squarely at Windows 10 Mobile’s terrible performance. This fuels speculations that the cost could further slowdown the amount of users switching to Windows 10.
Later this summer we will bring new features to Skype on Windows 10 Mobile, including SMS relay. Microsoft acknowledged in a statement Friday, “it will take longer” to get Windows 10 on a billion devices, but didn’t set a new timetable. Microsoft last month said there were 350 million devices running Windows 10, a tally that analysts say predominantly involves personal computers. And while Microsoft is expected to launch a new phone in 2017 that would make market leader Apple take notice, there won’t be a new flagship Windows 10 phone from Microsoft in 2016.
In the USA alone there are more than 56 million small to mid-size businesses in critical sectors, such as healthcare, legal and financial services, that need strong security similar to what Microsoft’s large enterprise customers get through volume licensing agreements, he added.
In the previous year the technology giant has slowed down its smartphone business and now says that this drop has made it more hard to get the new software on mobile devices such smartphones and tablets.
But they noted in a report that Microsoft is also offering the new software as a free download for people who want to install it on their existing PCs.
After 29 July, Windows 10 Home will be available for £99.99, while the Pro option will come with a price tag of £189.99.
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The end of free update to Windows 10 by the end of July should also slow the growth curve of the OS.
