With 1.3 billion Windows 10 users, the Windows installed base reaches a new high

The pandemic has been good for Microsoft in so many ways, with Microsoft even referring to pandemic-related savings in their recent earnings release.

One of the ways appears to have been reversing the decline in the Windows user base, with Microsoft revealing today that they added 300 million new Windows 10 users over the last year. In March 2020 Microsoft said they reach 1 billion Windows 10 users, and today the company revealed it has 1.3 billion Windows 10 users.

Microsoft attributes the growth to consumers purchasing larger-screened computing devices due to the need to work from home.

If we do a few back of the envelope calculations, with Statcounter saying 78% of Windows installations are Windows 10, we get a current Windows 10 installed base of 1.66 billion devices, which exceeds the generally accepted peak number of 1.5 billion.

Of course, it is an open question of what will happen to these PCs once the pandemic abates, but Microsoft appeared determined to retain these consumers by offering new consumer-driven features such as Edge for Kids for example.

Do our readers think these numbers are a blip, or have we entered a new golden age for the PC? Let us know below.

via ZDNet