According to data published by metrics vendor Net Applications, Windows 10 is now installed on 164 million PCs globally. The report suggests that the operating system’s overall user base has now increased by one percent, accounting to 10.8 percent of all PCs as of December 31st, 2015.
The report further adds that Windows 10’s user base did rise last month, though was slightly less than the growth seen in the previous month.
As in November, Windows 10 for PCs grew by 1.1 percent, while in October it month-over-month increase was 1.3 percent and in September, it saw a 1.4 percent rise. Notably, it was in August where the OS grew exponentially with a 4.8 percent boost. Net Applications’ report accounted for a total of 1.5 billion Windows devices currently in use, out of which Windows 10 has been installed on 164 million PCs worldwide.
Moreover, Net Applications’ report also suggests that Windows 10’s growth rate is slow compared to Windows 7’s in the first five months after release. As Windows 7 had 11.2 percent share in the five month since its launch back in 2009, slightly better than Windows 10’s share of 10.9 percent in December.
Hence, it seems Microsoft’s aggressive push which included a free upgrade for users running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 hasn’t paid off well. It was apparently supposed to boost Windows 10’s user base exponentially compared to its previous iterations, and it seems that hasn’t happened.
Microsoft officially announced back in October that Windows 10 has surpassed 110 million installs, which was rather impressive given the fact it had only been three months since the OS was released. The Redmond giant is now aiming at 1 billion devices running Windows 10 by mid-2018, though its month-over-month rise is slowing, and for the first time in December has fallen short of the growth rate set by Windows 7 in 2009-10.
In other related news, a recent report by WinBeta claimed that 200 million users have now upgraded to Windows 10, which is substantially higher than the 164 million figure published by Net Applications’ report.
