Mr. Gownder believes Microsoft will reach the one-billion-device target, but not until the beginning of 2020. That wasn’t long ago.
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But now that we’re more than halfway through 2016, Microsoft has backed off of that figure, admitting that goal was just a little bit too big.
The first major update to Windows 10 itself is also due at the beginning of August, when at the same time the opportunity for older Windows users to upgrade to 10 for free will also end.
Microsoft is backing off its timeline for getting one billion devices running Windows 10, the latest casualty of the company’s sharply curtailed ambitions in the smartphone world. “In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from commercial deployments and new devices”. Amid poor sales of Windows phones, the company has laid off the vast majority of the employees it acquired from Nokia when it bought that company’s smartphone division in 2014. “That’s not going to happen”.
Microsoft says Windows 10 is in active use on about 350 million separate devices at present.
Almost a year after hitting the market, Windows 10 is now running on more than 350 million devices, according to Microsoft.
Mehdi revealed Microsoft’s changing expectations for Windows 10 adoption while speaking with ZDNet last week. While many companies have pilot programs in place to test Windows 10, many more appear unwilling to go through the hassle and expense of an upgrade when earlier operating systems like Windows 7 are still perfectly capable of doing everything they need. The overall health of the company seems to be in decent shape, thanks to its growing cloud business and steady Office 365 product. Myerson’s claim encompasses all Microsoft devices: tablets, HoloLens, Xbox One consoles, Windows Phones, PCs in all shapes and sizes. Starting this fall, Microsoft is expected to launch Windows 10 Enterprise E3 for businesses which is basically a business-oriented version of Windows 10 that will not have a licensing cost.
Windows 7 and 8 users, meanwhile, have until next Friday, July 29 to upgrade to Windows 10 for free.
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On the other hand, while this might be rough news for Microsoft, it must no doubt be a happy occasion for Windows users who have been subjected to a myriad of misfortunes ever since the new OS arrived.
