Although Microsoft is still a powerhouse in the tech world, it still really needed Windows 10 to be a hit, if for no other reason than to wash the bad taste of Windows 8 out of everyone’s mouths. It looks like Windows 10 has delivered on that promise: Yusuf Mehdi, the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Windows and devices group, announced on Wednesday that Windows 10 has been installed in more than 75 million machines since its launch less than a month ago.
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In addition to the revelation about 75 million machines running Windows 10, Mehdi also revealed the following factoids:
- “Windows 10 is running in 192 countries, virtually every country on the planet.”
- “More than 90,000 unique PC or tablet models have upgraded to Windows 10.”
- “In response to “tell me a joke”, Cortana has told over half a million jokes since launch.”
- “Windows Store for Windows 10 has seen 6X more app downloads per device than Windows 8.”
That last point is particularly crucial for Microsoft because it suggests a higher level of user engagement with the new platform. And let’s not forget that the most popular apps on Windows 8 in the early days were apps designed specifically to restore the classic Start menu that longtime users were missing in the touch-centric OS.
How much better has the Windows 10 launch been compared to Windows 8? For that we turn to Paul Thurrott, who gives us a reminder of Windows 8’s launch history.
“With Windows 8, Microsoft was quick to debunk stories about the impending disaster despite having internal data showing that things were in fact far worse than anyone suspected,” he explains. “It announced that it had sold 40 million licenses to Windows 8 after just one month. But it didn’t note that only a tiny percentage of those licenses, those copies of Windows 8, ended up in users’ hands. And the glut of licenses sitting unused by PC makers quickly triggered a major slowdown in Windows 8 ‘sales,’ a slowdown that reflected immediately in usage too: Today, Windows 8/8.1 accounts for less than 16 percent of all PC OS usage, or about 240 million PCs.”
Given all that, Microsoft should be very pleased with how the Windows 10 launch has gone so far.
