Microsoft announces active Windows 10 devices total 1 billion, just six months after passing the 900 million mark-- with the number including PCs, laptops, Xbox One consoles and HoloLens devices.
“Today we’re delighted to announce that over one billion people have chosen Windows 10 across 200 countries resulting in more than one billion active Windows 10 devices," corporate VP of Modern Life and the Search & Devices Group Yusuf Mehdi says. “We couldn’t be more grateful to our customers, partners, and employees for helping us get here.”
The company intended to reach the 1 billion milestone within 3 years of the release OS, but had to revise such plans after the failure of Windows Phone. That said, at least according to Microsoft, Windows 10 is “the only operating system at the heart of over 80000 models and configurations of different laptops and 2-in-1s from over 1000 different manufacturers.” It is also the OS of choice of 100% of the Fortune 500, which is important since Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 earlier in January 2020.
Part of the success of Windows 10 comes through its being delivered as a service. Whereas Microsoft used to release a version of Windows every 3 years, it now releases multiple updates, and the decoupling of the Chromium-based Edge from Windows 10 allows the delivery of new builds to customers outside the normal Windows 10 release cadence. Microsoft also reveals it has 17.8 million users in the Windows Insider Program, with members in every country of the world.
Looking to the future, Microsoft is set to diversify Windows 10 somewhat with the release of Windows 10X, a version designed for upcoming dual-screen devices such as the Surface Neo. Other editions of the OS include Windows IoT, Windows 10 Teams edition for Surface Hub, Windows Server, Windows Mixed Reality on HoloLens and Windows 10 in S mode, among others.
Go Windows 10: Powering the World With 1 Billion Monthly Active Devices
