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Microsoft Expects 1 Billion Windows Users by 2010

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the a-third-of-those-will-be-spam-slaves dept.

prostoalex writes "The head of Microsoft Windows client division claimed there will be 1 billion Windows users by 2010, while nowadays there are 600 million of them, Microsoft-Watch reports. 35% of Microsoft's enterprise customers are still running Windows 9x and they are ripe for upgrade. Currently Microsoft's desktop PC market share is at 96%, with the closest rival - MacOS from Apple Computer - being installed on 2.8% of the desktops."

3 of 480 comments (clear)

  1. Users or installations by danormsby · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So is that 1 billion users or installations?

    If users how many of those users will also be Linux/Mac users?

    Maybe someone familiar with set theory can comment here?

    --
    Omnis amans amens
  2. No bravado, just ordered optimism by RoLi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    How does Microsoft expect to increase their market share 35% in the next 6 years[..]

    They don't.

    Microsoft stock isn't rising anymore for several years already, Microsoft needs some optimism for the stockholders so Gates, Ballmer, etc. can sell the rest of their stock - oops, sorry: to diversify their portfolio - before it becomes worthless.

    The cold hard truth is that MSFT is still vastly overvalued. In the late 90's Microsoft looked like the company that will take over everything: Servers, embedded systems, cellphones - and destroy anything else: mainframes, all non-x86 architectures, etc.

    The stock was valued this high because of these huge perceived future earnings.

    Now things have changed a lot and Microsoft is struggling everywhere outside their core-market (which is desktop software) and even their core-market is threatened.

    Microsoft has 60 billion in the bank, but will they ever be able to earn enough to justify their market cap of 300 billion?

    I seriously doubt that.

  3. Re:Winds of Change by int19 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Agreed. A few months ago my not-so-computer literate brother came to me asking me to install Linux for him; he had just gotten screwed around by some spyware or some such. He had never really used it before. Now he uses it for everything except the odd video game.

    My father switched to Mozilla sometime last year without prompting from me.

    Just two small examples.. But it's true; awareness is slowly coming around. It will be interesting to see just how far it goes, especially in light of the recent browser issues.