In an official blog post today, Microsoft revealed that there has been accelerated momentum with Windows 8, as the general availability of Windows 8.1 approaches. Windows 8 PCs were in high demand, obviously thanks to the back-to-school season.
“As we ramp up toward general availability of Windows 8.1, we’re seeing accelerating momentum with Windows 8. Windows 8 PCs were in demand for back to school and we saw a bump in activations (or new PCs coming online) and Net Apps data released earlier this month confirmed this bump between July and August,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
“We are excited for Windows 8.1 and all the different kinds of devices coming.”
“Our August activations were the highest for Windows 8 so far! And remember, consumers will be able to update their Windows 8 devices to Windows 8.1 for free through the Windows Store,” Microsoft stated.
During the Intel Developer Forum this week, Microsoft took the stage in a keynote and spoke about how Windows 8.1 would work seamlessly with Intel architecture to provide compatibility and consistency along with personalization, productivity, and security. Microsoft also touted Windows 8.1 as an operating system that has been optimized to power the latest innovative form factors running the latest energy efficient chips like Haswell and Bay Trail.
“We are excited for Windows 8.1 [and] all the different kinds of devices [that are] coming powered by Intel’s latest processor technology,” Microsoft added.
On top of that, Microsoft is also looking to raise awareness for Windows XP’s end of life, which takes place April 8th. “While, we’ve been talking with enterprise customers for years about this deadline, we’re accelerating our efforts across business and consumer audiences. We have a number of programs designed to reduce cost and complexity of migrating like TouchWins, which incents partners to drive PC refresh with Windows 8.1 devices,” Microsoft added.
Microsoft has yet to reveal any stats on Windows 8 such as how many licenses have been sold thusfar. All we know so far is that Windows 8 activations in the month of August was the highest for the operating system thusfar.
