Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that its Windows 10 operating system already reached 270 million active users since its launching in July— only eight months ago.
Terry Myerson, executive vice president, Windows, and Devices Group at Microsoft made the announcement during the company’s annual event for developers, Build 2016 in San Francisco, California on Wednesday.
He did not provide specific details on the number of personal computers (PCs), laptops/notebooks, tablets and smartphones are running the operating system. However, he noted that users are “more engaged than ever before spending 75 billion hours” on the operating system and the company’s hardware partners already developed 500 news devices designed for Windows 10.
Myerson noted that this year alone, the U.S. Department of Defense upgraded 4 million devices to Windows 1o. He said, “We’re humbled by this response.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella emphasized that “Windows 10 is off to an amazing start.” He noted that it is the fastest Windows adoption with both consumers and enterprises, and the company has “tremendous innovations in devices.”
Technology observers believed that the Windows 10 started strong based on the number of people actively using it. Take note that the Windows 8 received a lukewarm reaction from users.
Microsoft offered Windows 10 as a free upgrade
Microsoft offered the Windows 10 as a free upgrade to existing owners of the most recent Windows operating systems. J.P. Gownder, an analyst at Forrester, believed that the majority of the adopters are probably those who upgraded their systems for free.
Microsoft still dominates the software market for PC, but its share in the smartphone market is very small. Many people are now doing most of their computing (searching the web, reading and writing e-mails, chatting, playing games, and other online tasks) on their smartphones.
International Data Corporation (IDC), a technology research firm, forecasted that the Windows operating system will only represent 1.6% of the global market this year. Google’s Android operating system dominates the smartphone market with 83% share followed by the iOS operating system from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL).
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Windows 10 offers unique defenses from attacks
Additionally, Myerson said Microsoft designed the Windows 10 as its most secure platform that offers unique defenses from attacks.
The software giant stepped up its effort to protect its enterprise customers by launching the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection.
According to Myerson, the new service will help enterprise customers detect, investigate, and respond to advanced stacks in their networks.
“The Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection is powered by a combination of Windows behavioral sensors, cloud-based security analytics, threat intelligence, and by tapping into Microsoft’s intelligent security graph,” said Myerson.
