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Microsoft: Windows 10 Won't Hit 1 Billion Devices By Mid-2018 (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the broken-hearts dept.

Despite Microsoft's aggressive efforts to get everyone to upgrade to Windows 10 by mid-2018, the company says it is unlikely to meet its self-imposed deadline. In a statement to ZDNet, the company said: Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350M 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. ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley writes: Microsoft Windows and Devices chief Terry Myerson made the original claim at Build 2015, noting that the 1 billion figure would encompass all kinds of devices that would run Windows 10 in some variant, including desktops, PCs, laptops, tablets, Windows Phones, Xbox One gaming consoles, Surface Hub conferencing systems, HoloLens augmented reality glasses and various Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Officials said at that time that the majority of those 1 billion devices would be PCs and tablets. But Windows Phones running Windows 10 Mobile also were expected to help Microsoft reach that total by mid-2018.Since April 2015, the bottom has fallen out of the Windows Phone market, with Microsoft officials conceding that Windows Phone isn't much of a focus for Microsoft in calendar 2016.

57 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Windows Phone? by Z00L00K · · Score: 1

    It was a while since I even saw such a device offered in a shop.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    1. Re:Windows Phone? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I actually know more people with a Blackberry than with a Windows phone. Ok, I know one person with a Blackberry, so...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Windows Phone? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business

      They're "focusing" on their dozens of customers.

    3. Re:Windows Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      From those figures it sounds like Windows Phone is experiencing explosive growth! No one else can claim 600% YoY growth!

    4. Re:Windows Phone? by Kjella · · Score: 2

      I know one person with WP, I think the winning feature for him was the camera as apparently Nokia's hardware division does something right. But I don't think he's a trendsetter, to put it that way...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    5. Re: Windows Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I saw two dudes in a Starbucks with windows phones so I asked what was up. They both worked for Microsoft.

    6. Re:Windows Phone? by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      I know you're being funny here (and obviously it whooshed right over some other mod's heads), but it always cracks me up when people quote ridiculously high percentages of growth.

      It's fantastically easy to have 1200% growth when your starting position is one customer.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    7. Re: Windows Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Were they also fanny bandits?

    8. Re:Windows Phone? by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I know one person with a Windows Phone. He likes it. I agree, it's not a bad phone. The gawdawful interface put onto the PCs actually makes sense on a phone and is very usable. And combined with a very nice Nokia made phone it's a nice product. The commonly listed drawback" is having few apps but that's not really much of a problem given how most apps are crap anyway. The only real drawback in my view is the knowledge that it will never take off and you're stuck with a dead-end product.

      Other than the UI the major difference in phones is who you sell your privacy too, Microsoft, Apple, or Google. And given that Windows Phone has what I think is the better UI it should be more popular than it is. And I am saying this as a card carrying member of the Microsoft Haters Club.

    9. Re: Windows Phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The "country" of Redmond, Washington?

  2. Poor Microsoft... by OfficeLackey · · Score: 2

    Awwww, poor Microsoft. Perhaps if they had abused their customers more, they'd have made it. Perhaps the next CEO will have the complete disdain for customers needed to make them successful!

    1. Re:Poor Microsoft... by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      On Wall Street, if you're not at least x% higher in net income than the year before, you're unsuccessful. That's regardless of how much net profit you did make, market saturation, or even world events that might have impacted your business.

    2. Re:Poor Microsoft... by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      I didn't realize we only measured 'success' based upon what Wall Street thinks.

      For large corporations we do. If you don't make that crowd happy you'll find yourself subject to takeover attempts, boardroom shakeups, and activist investors.

      Life is really easier for a privately held company, because they can just say "because it's our business, fuck you" to their critics.

  3. Satisfaction? Heh. by danomac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    with record customer satisfaction and engagement.

    Strange, all I hear are complaints and requests to put Windows 7 back on. The #1 complaint I've heard is that wifi stops working reliably in W10.

    1. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Funny

      Well, the only thing people using W10 are satisfied with is the lack of an install-W10-now nag screen.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by Nidi62 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      with record customer satisfaction and engagement.

      Strange, all I hear are complaints and requests to put Windows 7 back on. The #1 complaint I've heard is that wifi stops working reliably in W10.

      "Record customer satisfaction". Notice they don't say what direction. And I'm sure tweets of "Microsoft you suck" count as engagement as well.

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    3. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by NotInHere · · Score: 1

      So, only thing microsoft has to do is to add more nag-screens to non W10, and W10 users will be satisfied!

    4. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by BLToday · · Score: 1

      WiFi has been wonky for me since Windows 8. Windows 10 upgrade actually reduced the number of WiFi failures for me. Still a lot more problematic than Windows 7 though. Got to the point where I just ran a wire to my main desktop because the connection would be lost once every few days and requires a reboot to get it back.

    5. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by danomac · · Score: 1

      The laptops I looked at dropped wifi every 20-30 seconds. They all seem to be Intel wifi cards and no driver update was able to fix it. These users were complaining because they couldn't acutally *use* their computer.

    6. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by danomac · · Score: 1

      I have fixed Lenovo, HP, Dell, LG, and Toshiba laptops that have had this issue. They were different models of Intel wifi cards, so I'm thinking there must be an issue with the wifi driver itself.

      I even tried it on my old LG laptop with Intel wifi and it had the wifi disconnect/reconnect issue. Hell, on my laptop sometime it initially wouldn't even connect to wifi unless you rebooted it 3-4 times.

    7. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by donaldm · · Score: 1

      Well, the only thing people using W10 are satisfied with is the lack of an install-W10-now nag screen.

      You are quite right, but little do they know is the Win10 now phones home every time you fire up the operating system which the average user is not aware off.

      Wait I hear you say but I can lock down Win10 so that it does not phone home. My answer is "Are your really sure of that?". As a simple test, you need to be running an operating system that you can definitely be sure that it is not sending packets to miscellaneous sites. I use WireShark since it is very good and it's also free). A Linux distro is probably a safe bet but you can try Windows 7 or earlier if you can be satisfied that any network traffic is minimal and that means no web browsers running. Next, install Win10 via iso which you can get from Microsoft here in a virtual machine. You will need a legitimate license key to activate your copy of Windows 10. Don't forget to do a customized install and lock down all features that you think are intrusive (I actually turned them all off).

      The next step is a little more complex since you have to log in to your Win10 virtual machine, open up the Security menu settings and turn off all additional intrusive setting (yes there are quite a few). Now go into the registry (refer to trusted web sites for this) and lock down other intrusive settings and hopefully you are done. Oh you will have to periodically check your settings in case mandatory Microsoft updates have turned some settings back on (for our own good, of course).

      Now comes the big test. With your Win10 virtual machine off, start your network analyzer and make sure there is little network activity on your machine. Now start your Win10 virtual machine and if you have a locked down Win 10 you should not see any additional network activity except for router acknowledgment. Next, try logging into your Win10 machine and note down any IP addresses that your virtual machine tries to talk to. If you do get any IP addresses you can do a search for them here . Guess who will own them?

      I actually tried the above on my Fedora machine and before I even logged in Win10 was talking to a few sites and guess who owned those sites.

      You can skip all the above and actually just run a network analyzer on Win10 but you definitely want to make sure there is little network activity which means no web browsers (especially Edge) running. What is important here is to look at all packets going out and where they are going to.

      Even if you decide to persevere with Windows 10 (most will) it is a very good idea to get the ISO install file and keep it on a USB stick in the event you need to recover your Win10 OS for whatever reason. BTW: Don't fire up a network analyzer outside your own home unless you have written permission do so, otherwise you could be accused of "cracking" which is a criminal offense. Please note the difference between "hacking" and "cracking" since so-called IT professional writers have been getting it wrong for well over 20 years.

      I always hear "Well I have nothing to hide." said when I mention what Win10 by default does and my reply is "Oh! Why don't you give me or any social media site all your personal details such as Bank, credit card information, sexual preferences etc, after all, you have nothing to hide right!".

      For those that think what I said is all too difficult well, there is is a saying "You have nothing to lose but your chains" even if those chains are gold plated. After all, gold plating usually rubs off and all you are left with are rusty chains and by then it's too late.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    8. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by Rainwulf · · Score: 1

      Record satisfaction? hahaha

      I have had two customers of large businesses say to me "get the fucking windows 10 bullshit of the machines and put windows 7 on so we can actually get work done"

    9. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by donaldm · · Score: 1

      Funny that. When 7 came out all I heard were complaints and requests to put windows XP back on.

      Users are terrible at adapting to change, even if it's 'my excel icon looks different, wtf I can't do my job'.

      How quickly people forget.

      --
      There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
    10. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by zerocommazero · · Score: 1

      Hmm, I never got that request with 7. I definitely did with Vista but not with Windows 7 upgrades.

    11. Re: Satisfaction? Heh. by antdah · · Score: 1

      I'm sure people are record-breakingly satisfied, but we're talking about Microsoft here. It's not like the bar was set at a respectable level.

      And as for the people who actually are satisfied, we're talking about Microsoft customers here. It's not like their demands are set at a respectable level.

    12. Re:Satisfaction? Heh. by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      I have frankly no idea why you wrote this as a reply to me.

      But it is kinda funny that one of my current jobs is to find out pretty much what you laid out in your posting, just that I have a few ... other means at my disposal.

      Btw, I do fire up a network analyzer. At work. And no, I'm not worried about my boss finding out. Actually, he'd probably want to know what the hell I'm doing all day if I don't use one...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  4. Dear Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dear Microsoft,

    I understand that you have to meet a target goal of 1 billion Windows 10 device installs by mid-2018 and that you are aggressively pursuing this goal by becoming even more of a pain in the ass than is typical.

    I have a few old laptops.

    If I download and install Windows 10 one billion times, changing my MAC address each time, then will you SHUT THE FUCK UP AND LEAVE EVERYONE ALONE!?!

    Respectfully,
    A.C.

    1. Re:Dear Microsoft by NatasRevol · · Score: 2

      VMware, PowerCLI, automate the whole damn thing.

      Should take half an hour to write a script. Run 10000 in parallel, be done in a few weeks.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    2. Re:Dear Microsoft by OzPeter · · Score: 1

      VMware, PowerCLI, automate the whole damn thing.

      Should take half an hour to write a script. Run 10000 in parallel, be done in a few weeks.

      Try and score some free Azure time and run it on there!

      --
      I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    3. Re:Dear Microsoft by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      We did at my previous job. $60,000 of credit. Used up in 1 month, with the equivalent of what $50k in hardware could do. For years.

      Cloud services are not a good financial decision if you're doing it at scale.

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    4. Re:Dear Microsoft by zlives · · Score: 1

      oh you figured me out!!! i was only doing it 350 million times a month though.

  5. Has to be said by codeButcher · · Score: 1

    After years of using Linux servers at work, even installing Cygwin at a stage, but otherwise being too lazy to "fix anything that ain't broken", I went for the gateway drug Linux Mint (because I think Win10 finally stepped over the "broken" threshold for me). It wasn't as painful as I feared, it gives a nice performance boost to many apps that run on both platforms (e.g. Eclipse and a JEE app server), and PlayOnLinux made running a couple of Win apps via Wine quite effortless.

    --
    Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
    1. Re:Has to be said by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Windows 10 is the first Windows I've bothered to use much. I tried XP for a while and went back to Mandrake. Vista was dog balls. 7 was back to being XP. 8.1 was absolute garbage; I used it for Unity 3D for a while. Windows 10 surprised me by having a modern, useful interface with surprisingly-fewer flaws than all prior versions of Windows (useless Start menu search; Virtual desktops don't allow me to ctrl-alt-shift move windows; no exploded workspace view a la Gnome 3, although the alt-tab interface is better than Gnome 3), and by being an actual, competent OS.

      Soon I'll get rid of Cygwin in favor of Ubuntu on Windows 10.

      If it could just act as an iSCSI initiator at the home desktop level, I'd run it on a diskless machine with a cheap, low-capacity M2 and use FreeNAS to back its main program and data drive. Too bad the Windows installer can't do sensible things like mount a disk over C:\Program Files.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
  6. a matter of definition by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 2

    Users of Windows 10 are the merchandise, not customers.

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  7. Progress by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350M monthly active devices, with record customer satisfaction and engagement. We're pleased with our progress to date, ... our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices ... increasing customer delight with Windows.

    Sure, we forced/tricked many of those people into updating from an older, acceptable version of Windows. And we're really pleased with all the "telemetry" we're receiving about everything - seriously, everything - everyone is doing on their systems and showing them ads and charging them for Solitaire, etc... (and we will be doing all that even for people that actually purchase their copy of Windows 10). But we won't truly be happy until we've got a *Billlllllion* (as voiced by Car Sagan) systems running Windows 10. That will really increase the delight of our customers - you know, the advertising and marketing folks.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  8. Billions of devices by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 1

    "I felt a great disturbance in the internet , as if millions of devices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear Windows 10 force upgrade has happened."

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  9. Something tells me... by Lendrick · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...that the people who want Windows 10 or can easily be tricked into installing it have already done so. If you're still running windows 7 now, it's for a reason.

    1. Re:Something tells me... by antdude · · Score: 1

      Don't forget Windows XP, Mac OS X, Linux, etc. too. ;)

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  10. "hottest start in history" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And it took malware-like behaviour on top of actual malware to do it.

    If there was no "free" upgrade, and Microsoft never forced, or even simply "offered" an upgrade, inside 7/8.1.. How many devices do you think would actually be running Windows 10?

    OK. now subtract all the new PCs that people didn't have a choice on or were sold with Windows 10 license but downgraded (extortion of OEMs is a separate matter), mobile and 'touch only' tablets (because irrelevant), consoles (because Xbox isn't a 'real' PC in the traditional sense), and volume license agreements (automatically includes Windows 10 licenses for every seat for desktop OS, even when hardly anyone actually wanted it or uses it). Now subtract all those who were compensated in some way or received Windows 10 as part of something else (MSDN, Technet, freebies or paid shill)

    This leaves exactly seventeen people worldwide who actually intentionally upgraded to Windows 10 on their own, and were not paid to it, were not forced to do it, did not have a 10 license handed to them as part of something else, and would have even paid the $100 for the upgrade.

    Yup, sounds like an historic success story to me.

  11. I've met a lot of by blackomegax · · Score: 1

    I've met a lot of people and not one of them has been excited or "delighted" by it. Most are fucking pissed off it forced itself on them like a creepy uncle.

    1. Re:I've met a lot of by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 1

      And it's crap, all of my immediate neighbours (yes UK sp.) constantly ask me (I'm networks BTW) to fix their computers.

      Common complaints following the "Upgrade" : Stuff doesn't work, computer so slow it's unusable, how do I delete/uninstall all this crap that I don't want or use?

      A: You can't.

      What a crock!

      I lost interest after XP.

      --
      If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
  12. Due to what now? by grasshoppa · · Score: 1

    ...We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business...

    What an interesting way of saying "ignoring".

    Honestly, given how aggressive MS has been with windows10, I'm a little shocked they don't have more devices.

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  13. Uh,,,bragging about force feeding? by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    Okay, MS was push windows 10 udpates to unwilling victims who were helpless resist unless they had windows administration knowledge. How does that make it "the biggest thing". More like the biggest digital hijacking operation in history.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  14. "Focusing" of the phone business by ITRambo · · Score: 1

    Nice try MS. You fucked up Windows phone from day one with the release of Windows phone 7. You have since Zuned it properly.

  15. A new initiative from Microsoft? by JohnFen · · Score: 2

    ...and increasing customer delight with Windows

    Microsoft is going to start trying to make Windows 10 delightful? That's good news, although a bit late in the game.

  16. Hottest start in history? by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    That's like saying that during the 1940s the Jewish tourist industr in Germany was the "hottest in history".

    And, like typical short term thinking corporate drones, they have sacrificed long term viability for short term benefit. Between the unprecedented powers that Microsoft has granted itself over people's computers, the stealing of basic ownership rights people used to enjoy with their computers for the past several decades, and the sheer obnoxiousness of this rollout, has basically destroyed mindshare in a way I never thought possible.

    I know that I'm going to be sticking with Windows 7 until I have no other choice.

  17. I work at Microsoft and the first thing by krkhan · · Score: 2

    that came to my mind was: 'tis but a scratch.

  18. Not Even with their Decpetion and Coercion? by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    I don't know what to think. They've been using every scummy trick in the book, and still not yet?

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
  19. Not if it takes 8 hours to d/l security patches by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    If they keep up that nightmare, then we're all going Linux.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  20. "record customer satisfaction" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350M monthly active devices, with record customer satisfaction and engagement.

    Windows Vista and Windows 10: the Comcast and Time/Warner of operating systems.

  21. ... with record customer satisfaction ? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1

    The bar must have been set pretty low.

  22. hA by SniffTheGlove · · Score: 1

    Windows 10 is off to the hottest start in history with over 350M monthly active devices, with record customer satisfaction and engagement. In reality it should be Windows 10 is off to the worset start in history with over 349,999 forced active devices, with record customer dis-satisfaction and engagement on forums. 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 reality it should be We're not pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our shit 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. In reality it should be In the year ahead, we are excited about usage growth coming from forced commercial deployments and new shity phone devices -- and increasing customer base by a few.

  23. False dichotomy by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

    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.

    Did Microsoft just put on record that they're incapable of developing a desktop OS and a phone OS at the same time?

    One would think that with their resources, they could afford two competent development teams.

  24. It's not really free by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    If they really wanted to hit huge numbers they wouldn't mess around with the installations of Windows 7 and Windows 8 users.

    They'd offer the damn ISO to download for free to anyone.

  25. Re:Who are these customers??? by donaldm · · Score: 1

    record customer satisfaction and engagement

    Windows 10 sucks. I turned on my laptop (only used when traveling) and it killed our available bandwidth. There doesn't appear to be a way to throttle it configuration wise but I did limit it from my router's side. Finding anything is difficult and getting rid of their apps that keep showing back up after every stupid update is infuriating.

    Who are these satisfied customers they speak of?

    You can lock down Windows 10. The Security settings are a great place to start although you can download applications (if you can trust them) that can help with the registry settings as well.

    --
    There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
  26. This is great news... by matbury · · Score: 1

    ...because when the singularity occurs and Skynet tries to take over the world, the whole system will pause for updates then blue-screen :)

  27. July 16, 2016... by iq145 · · Score: 1

    i just upgraded to Windows 10 TODAY :-) and hey, i was using Windows 8 before that... not even 8.1