Microsoft can't achieve target of 1 billion devices on Windows 10 by 2018

Remember the target of 1 billion devices running Windows 10? That was a target that Microsoft set upon itself. That wasn’t long ago. In fact, it’s just been a year, and Microsoft has figured out that it’s not on track to reach that number within the time frame.

Around the same time, we believed  Windows 10 ought to be a free upgrade  if Microsoft had to achieve that target. Turns out, Microsoft does realise the impact of the timeline, the target and the ability to meet the target under current market circumstances.

In response to a query by Ed Bott of ZDNet , Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President of Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft said, “Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350 million monthly active devices, with record customer satisfaction and engagement. We’re pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices. In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from commercial deployments and new devices – and increasing customer delight with Windows.”

That is an admission by Microsoft that it wouldn’t be able to hit the target of having 1 billion devices running Windows 10 by 2018. Nevertheless, Windows 10 has among the most successful adaption rates compared to previous operating systems released by Microsoft.