Microsoft says Windows 10 will miss goal of 1 billion device installs by 2018

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in General Discussion
Microsoft won't meet its high ambitions of having Windows 10 installed on 1 billion devices by 2018, owing to the decision to scale back its Windows phone business, the company acknowledged on Friday.




The goal is still to hit 1 billion, but that will take longer to reach, Windows marketing head Yusuf Mehdi said in a statement to Bloomberg. Windows 10 is currently installed on over 350 million devices, among them desktops, laptops, tablets, and a handful of phone models.

Microsoft hasn't been able to make much headway in the smartphone market, which is dominated largely by Android products and Apple's iPhone. A $7.2 billion takeover of Nokia's mobile phone unit ultimately proved fruitless -- the feature phone division was sold to Foxconn for $350 million, and the company recently axed almost 2,000 mobile-related jobs while booking a $950 million restructuring charge.

Windows 10 has enjoyed a much better reception in the PC world, but some of that goodwill was lost when users complained about having the upgrade forced on them, and/or about repeated messages asking them to switch. Blowback led Microsoft to change how it delivers the OS.

The company likely had the "1 billion" target in mind, although its overall product strategy benefits from having as many people on the same OS as possible, much in the same way Apple benefits from people being updated to the latest version of iOS or macOS. Some features and services may not work on older software.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    JinTechJinTech Posts: 1,066member
    Bummer. 
    mobiusbaconstangcornchipiqatedo
  • Reply 2 of 26
    michael scripmichael scrip Posts: 1,916member
    Why even set a goal like this?

    Customers don't care if Windows 10 is installed on 800 million devices or 1.2 billion devices by a certain date.  All they would care about is how well it works on THEIR devices.

    But setting a goal... and missing it... can only lead to embarrassment for the company.  The phrase "moving goalposts" comes to mind.

    I think it's funny that they are blaming this on the lack of Windows phone adoption.  Guess what... Windows phones were already tanking when they set this goal in the first place!  

    Surely they didn't expect Windows phones to be a big part of the 1 billion devices, did they?
    calijbdragonbrucemclostkiwimacky the mackybaconstangcornchip
  • Reply 3 of 26
    Good!

    Personally, I think that Windows 10 is a huge step backwards.
    I studied Operating Systems back in the early 1970's. I formulated a set of rules to use when evaluating Operating Systems.
    Windows 10 scores a measly 1.5 out of 10. AT&T System 3B Unix (circa 1984) scored 4 out of 10.
    I tried it for almost 2 weeks. After due considerarion I decided that I will never use it in anger. Daddy MS Is not always right.
    Then there is this latest move to stop Linux from being booted on Windows-RT devices. That is just Petty.
    MS is losing lots of what credibility that they have left with an awful lot of IT professionals.

    I sincerely hope that Apple is not going to follow them.

    boopthesnootcalicornchip
  • Reply 4 of 26
    yojimbo007yojimbo007 Posts: 1,165member
    Good!

    Personally, I think that Windows 10 is a huge step backwards.
    I studied Operating Systems back in the early 1970's. I formulated a set of rules to use when evaluating Operating Systems.
    Windows 10 scores a measly 1.5 out of 10. AT&T System 3B Unix (circa 1984) scored 4 out of 10.
    I tried it for almost 2 weeks. After due considerarion I decided that I will never use it in anger. Daddy MS Is not always right.
    Then there is this latest move to stop Linux from being booted on Windows-RT devices. That is just Petty.
    MS is losing lots of what credibility that they have left with an awful lot of IT professionals.

    I sincerely hope that Apple is not going to follow them.

    Curios.. What are your rules?
    cali
  • Reply 5 of 26
    nolamacguynolamacguy Posts: 4,758member
    how does your scoring system work?
    calicornchip
  • Reply 6 of 26
    Blowback led Microsoft to change how it delivers the OS.
    The last thing I heard was the trick where the cross icon for closing the upgrade pushing window actually starts the upgrade!
    edited July 2016 calijbdragonai46
  • Reply 7 of 26
    And that goal is why Microsoft is going to lose any class-action lawsuit that comes up about forcing people to upgrade.
    jbdragon
  • Reply 8 of 26
    I formulated a set of rules to use when evaluating Operating Systems. 
    Windows 10 scores a measly 1.5 out of 10.
    Pure gold!  I literally laughed out loud!
    cornchip
  • Reply 9 of 26
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Even with all the FORCED installations? That’s embarrassing.

    Then again, I have it installed, but I block all connections to Microsoft servers, so.
    calijbdragonlostkiwirevenantcornchip
  • Reply 10 of 26
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    The comment engine is definitely broken. I see line feeds used everywhere, yet when I use them they get scrubbed. I have not seen this happen before. @ Moderator: Please delete my testing comments.......
    It’s pretty nuts, but it’s a little better than Huddler’s. You can switch to raw HTML to edit from there what the rich editor REFUSES to let you edit.


    cali
  • Reply 11 of 26
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    They probably thought surface would be the new iPad.
    jbdragontallest skilcornchip
  • Reply 12 of 26
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    cali said:
    They probably thought surface would be the new iPad.
    And that’s their problem. They’re shooting for a category that has already been brand-named.

    “Being the new Band-Aid”
    “Being the new Kleenex”
    “Being the new Xerox”
    “iPhone Killer”
    “iPad Killer”

    They’ve already lost. Apple took “tablet” and made it synonymous with iPad. Apple took “smartphone” and virtually made it synonymous with iPhone. 

    If Microsoft wants to be the leader in something again, they have to make their brand synonymous with what the product is. Like they did with Windows, basically. People hear “PC”, they think of something running garbage. And that’s long before Apple’s commercials.
    lostkiwibaconstangcornchip
  • Reply 13 of 26
    I have Windows 10 running as a VM in Parallels 11 on my mid-2011 iMac 27" with two SSDs installed.  Windows 10 is not supported with Boot Camp on the mid-2011 iMac because the Boot Camp drivers are only available for 2012 and later Macs.  However, it is fully supported with Parallels 11.  I have to say it runs faster than Windows 7 did with Parallels, and anything is better than Windows 8.  I did a clean install of Windows 10 using a new Parallels 11 VM and it happily accepted my retail Windows 7 product key for the free upgrade.  I am quite happy with Windows 10 for running the occasional Windows app when needed.  I also have Windows 10 running on my Dad's old Dell PC, which is an Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of memory, and that also runs faster than Windows 7.  An 8GB memory upgrade would also surely help in the old Dell.  Both installations run quite well.  My fiancé's work laptop has Windows 8, and that is a complete nightmare to use.
  • Reply 14 of 26
    Good!

    Personally, I think that Windows 10 is a huge step backwards.
    I studied Operating Systems back in the early 1970's. I formulated a set of rules to use when evaluating Operating Systems.
    Windows 10 scores a measly 1.5 out of 10. AT&T System 3B Unix (circa 1984) scored 4 out of 10.
    I tried it for almost 2 weeks. After due considerarion I decided that I will never use it in anger. Daddy MS Is not always right.
    Then there is this latest move to stop Linux from being booted on Windows-RT devices. That is just Petty.
    MS is losing lots of what credibility that they have left with an awful lot of IT professionals.

    I sincerely hope that Apple is not going to follow them.

    Someone said to me a long time ago, "If I gave you a billion dollars to develop a new OS, no one would go the Windows way." Crunch!
  • Reply 15 of 26
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Even with all the FORCED installations? That’s embarrassing.

    Then again, I have it installed, but I block all connections to Microsoft servers, so.

    Well, that could be the problem. They assumed that they could continue forcing it on to their customers' machines until the one billion target was reached. But recently they had to fork out $10,000 to a woman who sued them for breaking her machine. Not a lot of money… unless everyone starts suing them. So MS stops the forced installations and a quick calculation tells them they're not going to hit their target without it. 

    tallest skil
  • Reply 16 of 26
    koopkoop Posts: 337member
    Weird. I guess when you're forced to turn off the malware that is Windows 10 automaticaly installing without the customers permission you can't meet your stupid arbitrary goals.

    The OS in itself is a data collecting monstrosity that pushes all their failed services down your throat. If i wasn't a gamer I'd have gone back to 7.
  • Reply 17 of 26
    badmonkbadmonk Posts: 1,333member
    I guess that iPhone funeral they had has brought them karmic retribution.  Will see how Wall Street reacts to their high flying stock valuation.
    cornchip
  • Reply 18 of 26
    theothergeofftheothergeoff Posts: 2,081member
    Microsoft at its core is a marketing company.   It's not about functionality to them, it's about sales.   So instead of setting goals like 'we want to be the best OS maker' or 'we want to be the most sought after OS by end users'   They set  'One.... Biiiilll...ion' sales as a goal.  we all know how that ends (a bad comedy).

    Microsoft... we are Post PC.   Banking your goals on desktop/laptop OSes is a fools game.   Buggy whips in a petroleum economy.


    cornchipkevin kee
  • Reply 19 of 26
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    Good!

    Personally, I think that Windows 10 is a huge step backwards.
    I studied Operating Systems back in the early 1970's. I formulated a set of rules to use when evaluating Operating Systems.
    Windows 10 scores a measly 1.5 out of 10. AT&T System 3B Unix (circa 1984) scored 4 out of 10.
    I tried it for almost 2 weeks. After due considerarion I decided that I will never use it in anger. Daddy MS Is not always right.
    Then there is this latest move to stop Linux from being booted on Windows-RT devices. That is just Petty.
    MS is losing lots of what credibility that they have left with an awful lot of IT professionals.

    I sincerely hope that Apple is not going to follow them.

    You do know that they plan on installing a binary compatible Linux Ubuntu subsystem with bash and all other tools imaginable (with apt get).
    That will make Windows 10 a Windows 10 killer and will mean the end of MS.

  • Reply 20 of 26
    Good!

    Personally, I think that Windows 10 is a huge step backwards.
    I studied Operating Systems back in the early 1970's. I formulated a set of rules to use when evaluating Operating Systems.
    Windows 10 scores a measly 1.5 out of 10. AT&T System 3B Unix (circa 1984) scored 4 out of 10.
    I tried it for almost 2 weeks. After due considerarion I decided that I will never use it in anger. Daddy MS Is not always right.
    Then there is this latest move to stop Linux from being booted on Windows-RT devices. That is just Petty.
    MS is losing lots of what credibility that they have left with an awful lot of IT professionals.

    I sincerely hope that Apple is not going to follow them.

    Curios.. What are your rules?
    I'm guessing they are very arbitrary rules tailored to his personal tastes. I'm not very impressed with Win 10 but I can't think of anything one could do on Unix System V that could not be accomplished better, faster and easier on Windows 10. Unless you are a fan of CLIs and editing documents with vi, I don't see the appeal.   
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