Windows 10 Adoption Rate Slows Briefly in April

Microsoft has set aggressive goals for proliferating its free Windows 10 upgrade, hoping to reach 1 billion devices in 2 to 3 years. Sitting just roughly above 270 million devices now, there’s still much work to do. However, giving itself a noncommittal 2 to 3-year span gives the company the ability to adjust the deadline as needed.

Microsoft’s eyes-closed, dartboard-goal, reminds me of the “Chinese Restaurant” Seinfeld episode. Jerry, Elaine and George are waiting to be seated for dinner, but each time they ask if a seat is ready the response is exactly the same.

Jerry: “How much longer is it gonna be?”

Bruce (Chinese server): “Oh. In about five, ten minutes.”

Microsoft’s 1 billion target is sort of like that. We’ll get there eventually.

Terry Myerson: “Oh. In about 2, 3 years.”

According to Netmarketshare, Windows 10 adoption slowed a bit in the last month. In March, Windows 10 had an overall 14.15 percent showing. April proved only modest gains to 14.35 percent.

This is not a new occurrence, though. The same happened just prior to the first big Windows 10 update last November. It seemed that customers consciously held off upgrading until the November update was ready for installation. Microsoft is currently promoting the Windows 10 Anniversary Update and promising some huge advances and a spate of new features. Windows 10 Anniversary Update is planned for the end of July 2016. This makes perfect sense, considering Windows 10 first released on July 29, 2015.