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.
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.
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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!)
I'm not so sure. Apple moves slow. Always has. You of all people should know that. I think what's going on with the stock price is a little more sinister. I actually worry about Apple after Cook. I think there is real contempt on Wall St. and in other parts of the global elite (Wall St being a front for) that truly resent Apple's humble beginnings and I don't think AAPL will ever gain by any impressive measure because of that sentiment. Laughably, Gates is made out to have come from humble beginnings (like Steve Jobs!) but of course, that couldn't be further from the truth. I even find the IBM deal to be a little creepy. I also think Icahn is bad news. I know I'm going to get harangued for saying that, and I'll freely admit I know next to nothing about how stocks & options & bonds & securities or any of that stuff works. I just hope nobody thinks it's a good idea to appoint him as a board member.
The day a CEO is appointed to make Wall St. happy will be the true beginning of the end of Apple as we know and love it. And I, for one, don't think that will be a good day.
One does wonder, though, what's in it for Microsoft when it, as a software company, is giving away its software. That's a very different dynamic from Apple giving away OS updates to increase the value of hardware it sells.
I think there is an analog on the Apple side. I'm not positive, but I think Apple periodically stops supporting certain OSX (and iOS) releases as well. e.g. someone exploits something in OSX 10.6.8 (the last update) I don't think Apple would be pushing a 10.6.9 update. Their policy would be "buy a new mac that supports El Cap so you're up to date. And oh there's a migration assistant allowing you to set up in a snap, and we'll recycle your old machine for free."
I was able to Upgrade it to Windows 10 wiping it completely clean to do it. It's much better now then before and takes up less space. I still rarely use it and instead just use my iPad 3 which is really SSLLLLOOOOOWWW with iOS9 on it!!! I have the free Windows 10 on my Desktop now and it's not BAD, but I'm having issues with my mouse pointer at times being really SSLLLOOW and the CPU is not working hard. It's a High end PC with 32 gig's of ram and GIG's and gig's of stroage space. I havn't figured out what is going on with the mouse. I didn't have this problem with Windows 7.
Microsoft is not going Windows away for FREE like Apple gives away iOS or Mac OSX. It's FREE for a year on a Windows 7 or 8 PC you already paid for. If you buy a new PC, you're still paying for Windows that's part of the PC price unless you buy a Surface, this own hardware.
What I thought was really lame of MS more then anything is naming it Windows 10!! Also being forever Windows 10, a Exact Copy of Apple and Mac OSX and it's forever X OS. Microsoft could have called it ANYTHING. Call it Windows FOREVER for all I care. Microsoft in the past has used NAME's like Vista. It literally could have been called anything, but instead they skipped Windows 9, and just direct copied Apple with Windows 10. It's really pretty lame.
I'm a long time Windows user, since Windows 95. There's to much the a Mac can't do for me at this time. Windows 8 almost drove me to a Mac though. Even being a Windows user, I still have my iPhone 6, iPad 3, 3 Apple TV 3's, a Apple TV4, and a Apple Watch, which I really like!!!! I'm still going to call it how I see it, no matter if it's MS, Apple, Samesung or someone else. I plan to get a iPhone 7 maybe a 7 Plus and see what the Apple Watch 2 ends up being and if it's worth a upgrade or not.
MS only reason to giving away Windows 10 is because most users would not PAY to upgrade the OS on their computer. They'd just get it buying a new Computer. MS wants Windows 10 on as much stuff as possible to try and get Universal App's to take off, which would get more App's for their Windows phone and help expand that market. Will it work? Slim chance at best. I'd buy a Windows phone with the right hardware and the App's I needed, but I just don't ever see that happening.
I don't understand the logic you're applying here. As an investor, what interest do you have in Apple retaining talent, reputation or innovation? Look how much bad press and hate the likes of the Pharma of Insurance industries get; they're some of my best performing stocks and some of the best performing stocks overall.
If you think those three things, why would you hang onto the stock and not just panic sell?
Apple is, to me (and I'm sure millions more) a very stable, healthy stock. They've already got more than a half-trillion market cap, they're realistically not going to do a huge percentage more because the economy literally wouldn't support them making massive gains. Yes, I know there's been bigger companies in history but you have to compare the existing market cap with the limitations of what a market cap can be. I personally think $150 is a reasonable estimation on value which is why I'm hanging onto it; once the economy improves itself a little (yes, I'm optimistic about it) I can see Apple's stock being one of the fastest climbing back up. I doubt I'll be short term, but I care little for that - I'm thinking in a decade or so.
Look at the list of market caps: we have Apple, a seller of luxury goods. Microsoft, a business software provider and Google, a data collection/advertising agency. The rest of the list is a scattering of Mobile service providers, petrochemical consortia, retail outlets, banks, insurance companies and the likes. Do you think any of these companies are 'liked' for their products? No, they're money making enterprises with CEOs that protect the stock price by screwing over their customers just to make money. Apple is one of the very few companies out there that is both profitable and actually seems to give a damn about customers.
Apple's money-spinning is a product of locking people into a dependent ecosystem and keeping huge profit margins, and it works. I'd say Cook has done a fantastic job of protecting this and the stock price. I know we've seen the stock fall from 130-highs (pre-split) of 2010, but it's still the largest market cap out there.
also -- what happened to your ban? you already said goodbye in December...yet here you are?