Windows 10 now on more than 200 million devices, Microsoft says

A little over five months since its official release date, Windows 10 is now installed on over 200 million devices worldwide, Microsoft said in a Monday announcement.

Adoption of the OS is easily outpacing both Windows 7 and 8, the company added. Its growth has been just under 140 percent faster than Windows 7, and more almost four times faster than Windows 8. Over 40 percent of new Windows 10 devices have been activated since Black Friday.

Windows 8 was a deeply unpopular release for many PC owners, as it defaulted to a touch-oriented homescreen interface regardless of what device it was installed on. Windows 10 boots to a traditional desktop view in most cases, and adds more features such as Cortana voice assistance and the Edge web browser. People have complained, however, about behind-the-scenes data collection that must be manually disabled.

The speed of Windows 10 adoption is most likely linked to Microsoft making it a free upgrade for the first year, combined with it being included on new laptop, desktop, and tablet PCs. Although Macs have gained marketshare, Windows is still by far the world's most popular computer platform.

The free upgrade strategy in fact mimics Apple's approach with OS X, and will likely be necessary to meet Microsoft's goal of having Windows 10 on a billion devices in 2018. That includes not just PCs but smartphones, although Windows phones have largely failed to catch on so far.

29 Comments

freerange 1597 comments · 16 Years

About 8 years ago

???? "...Windows is still by far the world's most popular computer platform."

CORRECTION: Windows has the world's largest installed desktop computer base by far, but Apple OS X remains the world's most popular desktop platform based on overall consumer satisfaction levels. Further, when looking at all computing platforms vs desktop, one needs to include Apple's mobile OS, which changes the picture dramatically for computing OS market share. For MSFT and their mobile offerings, not so much. (After all, our mobile devices are now advanced computers!)

thewhitefalcon 4444 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

Define "computer platform". Windows is only on about 13% of electronic devices today. UNIX based systems dominate computing.

magman1979 1301 comments · 11 Years

About 8 years ago

It's nice for them to leave out the fact that many people were duped into installing Windows 10 because of that lovely Trojan horse Microshit shoved onto our Windows machines via Windows Updates! That constantly uses our machines as non-sanctioned BitTorrent distro machines for Windows 10 installers, and how people can't get rid of it! Of course adoption numbers are this high when they are conning people into upgrading! Microshit has now become the biggest bunch of crooks out there, and as expected, Wall Street is loving them for it and rewarding them.

applejeff 13 comments · 12 Years

About 8 years ago

sog35 said:

Its pathetic that the Microsoft CEO is able to twist numbers like this and receive Wall Street praise. This is despite Microsoft having a horrible product in Windows and having virtually no foothold in mobile.

The Microsoft CEO who came on board in April 2014 has increased the stock price 55% despite showing revenue and profit declines.

While Tim Cook has allowed Wall Street bullshiters to overtake the stock and showed the first annual stock price decline since 2008.

Its a fucking joke that the Microsoft CEO can show stock gains with a total crap product like Windows while the Apple CEO can't even show stock gains while selling the most lucritive product in the history of man.

Under Steve Jobs Apple's PE was an average 20.
Since Cook has taken over the PE average is 12. And now its close to 10.
If Apple was valued like a mediocre company (like Chlorox) it would be worth close to a TRILLION.
This falls 100% on Cook because:

1. He allows Wall Street liars to continue to spew absolute BULLSHIT about the company
2. He constantly posts awesome earnings and then post weak as shit guidance for the next quarter
3. He wastes his time on issues that shareholders don't give a shit about: gay rights, kid's coding, and tax evasion. Yet he spends no time articulating the vision of the company. He spends no time trying to convence investors that Apple is much more than just iPhone Inc.

4. He has dragged his feet to many times. Constantly reacting instead of being proactive. He was late in bringing out a large iPhone. He was late in releasing a legit music streaming service. He is dragging his feet again regarding closing a live TV deal. Dragging his feet in releasing a new iPadAir and updated Macbooks. Dragging his feet with sticking to 16GB phones.

The price of Apple stock would obviously be important to you if you wanted to sell but not so much if you wanted to buy or hold the stock. If you plan to hold the stock, aren’t you better off with a CEO that is focussed on profitability and growing the business rather than a CEO that has one eye on the stock price?