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Microsoft says Windows 10 will be on a billion devices within three years

Microsoft says Windows 10 will be on a billion devices within three years

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Microsoft has huge hopes for Windows 10, and it wants to quickly see the new operating system become its most successful ever. Windows chief Terry Myerson said today that Microsoft wants to see Windows 10 on 1 billion devices within two or three years of its release. "No other platform working in any ecosystem is available on 1 billion devices," he said. Microsoft believes that between its free upgrade offer for existing Windows customers, new devices, and plans for business users, it should be able to hit that target. For comparison, it took Microsoft about 15 months to sell 200 million licenses of Windows 8, though the hope is that Windows 10 will be much better received.

"We know this needs to be widely adopted."

Achieving its goal won't just mean getting Windows 10 on new devices — it'll be getting older devices off of older operating systems. That's been an ongoing battle for Microsoft, one that it hasn't necessarily been that successful in. Companies have built their IT infrastructure around old versions of Windows, and they often aren't eager to change tools that people need to use every single day. If Microsoft can get companies updating, it'll have a much better ecosystem situation on its hand, since developers will know that Windows 10 is the platform to focus on. "To make all of this work for developers we know this needs to be widely adopted," Myerson said.

The aim for widespread adoption also speaks to Microsoft's new view of Windows: it isn't selling an operating system, it's about the services on top of that. More people with Windows 10 means more people who can access those services, and that's good news for Microsoft and for the many developers offering their own services as well.