Microsoft Says Windows 10 Now Installed On One Billion Devices Two Years Later Than Projected

Microsoft is celebrating the billion milestone for Windows 10. This comes as Microsoft originally believed it was going to hit that mark two years ago but as with projections, they don’t always work. Well the news here is that there are now at least one billion active Windows 10 devices in the world.

At the Microsoft Build 2015 conference, Microsoft’s former executive vice president, Terry Myerson predicted boldly that it would take them two- or three-years tops to hit one billion. But this was going to be a tall order in a world that is increasingly becoming mobile. Compare this to Android’s 2.5 billion active devices till date and 1.35 billion for Apple’s iOS. That said though, the number represents for only Windows 10. It just means that mobile operating systems are taking over gradually even at the enterprise level.

Microsoft had to make big sacrifices to get Windows 10 to this level though. So, when they first announced the operating system back in 2015, Microsoft immediately announced that it would offer free upgrades for Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 users in the first year. As you might expect, many jumped at it to the extent Microsoft had to issue time slots among other rules in a bid to control the traffic.

Things being what they are, a few years longer, to be exact. That figure incorporates an assortment of gadgets, including desktop PCs, Xbox One consoles, HoloLens devices, laptops and IoT.

Reporting this in a blog, Microsoft says “not only is Windows 10 the most popular PC gaming platform on the planet, but it also powers the entire Xbox family of consoles, including the fastest and most powerful Xbox Series X, which will be available later this year.”

Microsoft had to end support for Windows 7 which was popular among enterprises for hundreds of millions more to transition to Windows 10. On that Microsoft says “With 100% of the Fortune 500 now using Windows 10 devices, it has become a critical platform for driving business transformation in the enterprise and beyond. As companies transition from Windows 7 to Windows 10, they are making a commitment to running their business more efficiently, more securely, and positioning themselves to offer better products, services and solutions to their customers.”

Microsoft is going to push out another significant update to Windows 10 (20H1). Important to gamers, the up and coming update will include a GPU temp monitor in the Task Manager, it also comes with a frames per second counter in the Xbox Game Bar.