Windows 10 1607 is launching on August 2 as the Anniversary Update. However, the true one year anniversary of the first launch of Windows 10 is actually today. To celebrate, Windows Insider Program chief Dona Sarkar has written a lengthy blog post. In her post she reels off the numbers of Windows 10's success over its first year on the market.
During its first year, Windows 10 has been adopted by 350 million devices. It is an oft spoken statistic from Microsoft, but an admittedly impressive one nonetheless. Of course, the company has come under fire for how it has achieved such a stellar adoption rate.
Through the first year, Sarkar points out that there have been three major releases. She says that since the November Update that the Windows Insider Program has evolved. In the blog, Sarkar also speaks of the future, including the start of Windows 10 Redstone 2 previews in August.
Over the first year of the Windows 10 lifespan, Microsoft has issued 28 PC builds and 20 Mobile builds to the Insider Program. Feedback is key to the Insider model. Microsoft created the community to give users the chance to see features early and help the company improve upon them before full release.
Insider Feedback
That concept has been hugely successful, with 70 million pieces of feedback in 2016 alone. Sarkar says more than 5000 (features, bug fixes, and UI enhancements) have been made to Windows 10 based on Insider feedback.
“By releasing new builds of Windows to Insiders to try out so quickly, the engineers and designers on our team can get real customer feedback on new features and changes in an incredibly short amount of time and respond to that feedback pretty quickly.”
The Insider chief points to a rather innocuous update as the definition of the Insider Program in positive action. She points to the File Explorer icon. Many Insiders disliked the icon and let it be known through feedback. Just a couple of weeks later Microsoft was able to update and change it. Without Insiders this icon would have gone to end users in its unlikeable original form.
