Windows 10 is Microsoft's Fastest Growing OS, Now Being Used on More than 200 Million Devices

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 05 Jan 2016

Seeing that is offered as a free upgrade and that Microsoft is aggressively asking customers to upgrade, it comes as no surprise that Windows 10 is Microsoft’s fastest growing operating system ever.

Microsoft started the year by announcing that “as of today [January 4, 2016], there are more than 200 million monthly active devices around the world running Windows 10.” The announcement was accompanied by a few other interesting figures about Windows 10’s growth and popularity. Check them out below.

Windows 10 is used on more than 200 million devices

Windows 10 hit the market on July 29, 2015. In the first month, more than 75 million devices had been upgraded to Windows 10. Two months later, Windows 10 crossed the 110 million installs milestone. It’s early 2016, some 5 months after Windows 10 was released, and the operating system has managed to find its way on more than 200 million devices.

Microsoft wants Windows 10 to be on 1 billion devices by 2018. It’s an ambitious goal and Microsoft certainly aims to reach it, no matter what it takes. I am referring to the Get Windows 10 (GWX) app that Microsoft pushes via Windows Update to all its customers. Once installed, it runs automatically and it constantly pesters customers to upgrade to Windows 10.


Window 10 is Microsoft’s fastest growing OS

"Windows 10 continues to be on the fastest growth trajectory of any version of Windows – ever – outpacing Windows 7 by nearly 140% and Windows 8 by nearly 400%,” explained Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President, Windows and Devices Group, Microsoft.

“We are also seeing accelerating and unprecedented demand for Windows 10 among enterprise and education customers. As of today, more than 76% of our enterprise customers are in active pilots of Windows 10, and we now have over 22 million devices running Windows 10 across enterprise and education customers,” said Yusuf Mehdi.


The highest engagement on Windows ever

Windows 10 users spend a lot of time on their devices. That’s great news for Microsoft, it means that Windows 10 has a high engagement rate. According to Microsoft, this December alone, Windows 10 users spend over 11 billion hours on Windows 10. Here are some more interesting figures:
  • Over 2.5 billion questions asked of Cortana since launch.
  • Over 82 billion photos viewed within the Windows 10 Photo app.
  • Over 4 billion hours spent playing PC games on Windows 10.
  • Over 6.6 million hours of Xbox One games streamed to Windows 10 PCs.

Wait a minute! Why does Microsoft know how much time you use Windows 10? How is it tracking this and why is it tracking this? BetaNews got in touch with Microsoft to try and find out what is going on and, as expected, they got nowhere. A Microsoft spokesperson said they cannot provide any comment on this.



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