It seems like anything free, even with strings attached, can do wonders for your product. According to Yusuf Mehdi, an executive of Windows and Devices Group, the latest OS version rolled by the company Windows 10 is already up-and-running on 14 million PCs.
That’s 10 million more than what the last OS version, Windows 8 drew within its first three days of release, just three years ago. While Microsoft won’t start taking in big bucks right now, it has clearly started strongly in its goal of attaining a widespread user base.
With 1.5 billion devices running worldwide, though, 14 million still seems like a small bite, especially since it includes the 5 million users who were already running a preview as a part of the Insider program. According to StatCounter, the user-share of Windows 10 doubled on launch day to 0.6%, before bloating up to 2.5% by Saturday, three days into its release.
The latest figures from Microsoft sources estimate it at around 67 million in sales. That sounds impressive, but more impressive is the fact that it hit a new record bandwidth of 15 Tb/s, almost twice that of the 8 Tb/s figure which Apple had posted previously. With an estimated capacity of 40 Tb/s though, hardly a sweat was broken.
Windows 10 is viewed as a lucrative prospect because of its free-to-use nature for existing users. Moreover, the users of OS versions older than Windows 7 and 8 get a 90-day free trial of Windows 10 Enterprise too, which, in fact, comes with even more restrictions but works as a fine appetizer nonetheless.
Microsoft has repeated its goal of 1 billion installs by the mid of 2018 on several occasions. With the imminent release of the first batch of Windows 10-running machines, we will be in a better position to judge whether the public shares that enthusiasm, too.