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1.5 billion Windows devices: More than iOS but lagging Android, Microsoft stats show

Windows holds steady on 1.5 billion users, says Microsoft, as it reveals new statistics.
Written by Liam Tung, Contributing Writer

Microsoft has once again asserted that 1.5 billion PCs around the world run on Windows.

It posts the figure in its newly updated Microsoft by the Numbers website, which also shows off that Cortana has been asked 18 billion questions, facts about the company's artificial-intelligence activities, donations, and its carbon footprint.

The number is consistent with figures that Microsoft has previously set out about Windows adoption. Apple has about 1.3 billion active iOS devices, while Google reports about two billion active Android devices.

Microsoft in July said just under 700 million PCs are running Windows 10, up from 500 million in May. Last week, the company boasted that more than half of Windows devices in the enterprise are running Windows 10.

Microsoft's own app data statistics report shows that, as of September, 76 percent of all Windows PCs are running the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, version 1803, with the remainder on some earlier version.

Missing from the new By the Numbers report is a mention of Office. Previously it stated that Office apps have had been downloaded over 100 million times on Android and iOS, as Neowin reported when Microsoft's site launched in 2015.

SEE: 50 time-saving tips to speed your work in Microsoft Office (free PDF)

Microsoft now says it has given out 137 'AI for Earth' grants to individuals and organizations in 47 countries, helping them use AI for environmental projects in agriculture, biodiversity, climate change and water.

It's Rural Airband Initiative is aiming to help bring broadband to two million unserved people in rural America by 2022.

And Microsoft boasts that it analyzes over 6.5 trillion signals to help customers detect threats. As outlined in a previous blog, that figure consists of devices scanned, botnet data, apps, Bing pages, and email.

On Microsoft's own impact on the environment, it notes that 189 million pounds of food-related waste from its Puget Sound campus go somewhere other than a landfill every six months, while its Silicon Valley campus uses no water from municipal water supplies.

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