Mehdi revealed Microsoft’s changing expectations for Windows 10 adoption while speaking with ZDNet last week.
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Although Myerson and his team are still confident about their ability to hit the 1-billion milestone, it’s unlikely to happen by 2018 as originally projected. In the mid-1980s, it rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS-DOS followed by Microsoft windows.
The company unveiled the target when it launched Windows 10 a year ago, indicating that it would make the latest Windows operating system by far the most popular the company has ever released.
Back in late June of this year, Microsoft support claim Snapchat for Windows 10 Mobile was on its way. Microsoft remains confident it will eventually hit its 1 billion device goal. Microsoft was counting on selling 50 million Windows phones a year when it came up with its 1 billion device goal, BBC reported, but it will likely sell a fraction of that. At that time, many believed that the company would be unable to achieve the set goal and Microsoft has now publicly admitted that its goal of reaching a billion device was a tad bit ambitious.
One year after it was released, the next-generation operating system is now installed on some 350 million devices worldwide. As Yusef stated, a major component of this has been the struggles with its phone business.
It’s also worth noting that Microsoft has made very little effort to get Windows 10 Mobile onto older devices. “This new subscription model is not associated with our current upgrade offering or applicable to the Windows 10 consumer edition”, a Microsoft spokesperson told PC World.
The new Windows 10 lets virtual assistant Cortana handle more commands, and opens the door to sync with Xbox One consoles to play video games.
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Microsoft’s reorganization of its phone business, to get away from manufacturing a broad selection of Windows smartphones, has been a key factor in the delay. After that, consumers who want the latest version will have to pay $119 to upgrade devices that aren’t already running Windows 10 or buy new devices. 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.
