Microsoft reports that Microsoft Windows 10 is on 400 million active devices as of today. As the company has revealed at its Ignite 2016 event, Windows 10 usage continues to grow steadily as 100 million active devices began using the operating system since May of this year.
While Microsoft executives have admitted that they won’t meet their initial goal of having Windows 10 on a billion devices by 2018, use of the platform continues to grow steadily. Devices running Windows 10 included in that statistic include phones, tablets, XBox One consoles and HoloLens Surface Hubs, as well as personal computers. Active devices include only devices used in the last 28 days.
Devices running Windows 10 included in that statistic include phones, tablets, XBox One consoles and HoloLens Surface Hubs, as well as personal computers. Active devices include only devices used in the last 28 days.
Slower adoption than expected
While that number sounds impressive, Microsoft acknowledges Windows 10 adoption is behind expectations. The original goal was to have Windows 10 on 1 billion devices by 2018, a number the company concedes will not be reached as planned.
Windows 10 has now reached a Desktop market share of 21.13% after rapid growth in the first half of the year. As Microsoft’s free upgrade program ended July 29, many expect the rate of updates and new installations to slow down in the future. Partly this is due to the typical slow adoption of business customers.
Like with other Windows updates of the past, the business sphere has no rush to upgrade to Windows 10. As a recent survey shows, 54% of companies have migrated less than 5% of their systems to Windows 10. 41% are using software to actively block the platform from installing.
Controversy about forced upgrades
Microsoft is facing criticism and even lawsuits for its aggressive Windows 10 update practice with misleading pop-ups and automatic updates which users did not actively approve. A quite substantial share of those 400 million Windows 10 devices might actually run the newest Windows version “by accident” as the recently reported rollback rate of 12% suggests.
Last Updated on September 28, 2016 5:35 pm CEST