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Windows 10 is still not yet on 700 million 'active' devices

Microsoft's Windows 10 officially still has not yet crossed the 700 million 'active device' line. It's still almost there, as it has been for months now.
Written by Mary Jo Foley, Senior Contributing Editor

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Microsoft officials have been hinting the company was closing in on the 700 million mark for Windows 10, but now it's official.

During the company's Q4 FY'18 analyst call on July 19, CEO Satya Nadella said Windows 10 was "active" on nearly 700 million devices. That's compared to 600 million, which was the most recent milestone Microsoft had revealed back in late November 2017.

Read also: Here's how you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade

Update: I originally thought Nadella said "more than." But I was wrong, according to a company spokesperson. He said "nearly."

Microsoft officials announced (and then backed off) releasing this 700 million figure during Day 1 of its Build 2018 developer conference in Seattle in May. Instead, they opted to go with "nearly 700 million." For the past several months, the seemingly official word was "nearly." But on a phone call I had earlier today with Microsoft Investor Relations, a spokesperson told me they had already announced the 700 million figure.

Read also: Here's how you can still get a free Windows 10 upgrade - CNET

Investor Relations also told me that impact from the looming Windows 7 end-of-support date of January 2020 still has not yet had a material impact on Windows 10's uptake. So maybe that will be what drives the figure officially beyond the 700 million magic number.

Microsoft's "monthly active devices" metric is for devices that have been "active" in the past 28 days. It includes Windows 10 on PCs, tablets, phones, Xbox consoles, HoloLens and Surface Hub devices, and includes all of the various feature updates of Windows 10.

Microsoft's self-stated goal in 2015 was to have Windows 10 running actively on 1 billion devices within two to three years of its initial release in 2015. Microsoft officials conceded last year that it would take the company longer than that to hit the 1 billion mark, likely as the result of Microsoft's failure to get phones running Windows 10 to gain traction.

Read also: Windows 10: A cheat sheet - TechRepublic

Of the nearly 700 million active monthly devices running Windows 10, 200 million of those are commercial Windows 10 devices, company officials have said recently.

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