Windows 10 has Surpassed 81 Million Installs

Windows 10

Not long ago, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 had surpassed 75 million installs and that number continues to grow with my insider sources telling me that the OS is installed on more than 81 million machines.

Windows 10 is crucial for Microsoft’s future success in the enterprise and consumer markets. Seeing as Windows 8 was largely ignored by the enterprise and that the consumer did not warm up to the OS, if Windows 10 does not succeed, that means Windows 7 is the long term future for the company. But, with Windows 10 already taking 5% of the marketshare for desktop operating systems, the initial feedback suggests that the OS is off to a good start.

And while the 81 million figure represents the total base, Microsoft has provided a small glimpse into the enterprise sector where they have stated that there are 1.5 million installs of its Enterprise SKU. They also touted that the OS is actively being tested and considered for deployment in corporations around the world and they expect that number to grow quickly.

One trend that will be interesting to watch is to see if consumers warm up to Cortana and then want that feature in other locations, such as on their phone or even their work PCs. The personal digital assistant is designed to help make you more productive by surfacing relevant information for you, such as traffic on your drive home from work or to remind you to pick up milk if you are heading by a grocery store. If consumers do adopt Cortana into their digital family, we will be curious to see if they put pressure on IT admins to bring that functionality to the office as well.

For now, know that the OS is quickly moving into the consumer space but the big question that has yet to be answered is how many pre-registrations for the free upgrade occurred as this is driving the fast adoption of the OS? Only Microsoft knows this number and I don’t expect them to share it anytime soon but the growth of Windows 10 is still charging forward with little sign of slowing down.