Microsoft is holding its annual shareholder meeting today, where CEO Satya Nadella just shared an important update on the Windows 10 user base. There are now 600 million active monthly devices worldwide, which is up from the 500 million number that the company shared at Build 2017 back in May (via GeekWire).
Adding 100 million monthly active devices over the course of seven months is pretty good, even though we’re still far from the 2 billion monthly active devices running Android worldwide, or even the 1 billion iOS devices in active use. Still, the Windows 10 ecosystem is definitely expanding and could reach 1 billion devices over the next two years, assuming this growth doesn’t slow down in the near future.
As of today, Windows 10 is the core of various computing devices that are not traditional PCs and laptops: these devices include mobile phones, Xbox One consoles, digital whiteboards like the company’s Surface Hub, IoT devices and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Interestingly, the first Cortana-powered speaker from Harman Kardon runs a variant of Linux and not Windows 10 for IoT.
As Microsoft doesn’t have a mobile platform that can compete with iOS and Android today, PCs obviously remain the company’s main focus for now, with two major Windows 10 releases every year. The company is also expected to unveil the first Windows 10 on ARM devices before the end of the year, which should provide better battery life and always-on connectivity to consumers.
