Microsoft EVP Yusuf Mehdi said in a blog post last week that Windows powers over a billion active devices globally. This might sound like a healthy number, but according to ZDNET, the Microsoft annual report for 2022 said that more than 1.4 billion devices were running Windows 10 or 11. Given that these documents contain material information and have allegedly been pored over by the tech giant’s lawyers, we can safely assume that Windows’ user base has been quietly shrinking in the past three years, shedding around 400 million users.
Everyone talking about how it’s because of Windows 11 or their greed driving people away, etc. But they’re ignoring the big one:
People don’t need as many computers these days. You don’t have a lot of households with a laptop for every member of the family because smartphones and tablets have replaced the PC for many people for media consumption and basic tasks.
lupusblackfur@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
If this calculation proves true, one would think losing close to 1/3 of its customers would cause M$ to rethink some of its business policies/plans…
Such as forcing folks to retire perfectly good hardware and buy new if they wish to run Windoze11.
But then again, it’s M$… 🤷♂️ 🤦♂️
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
1/3 of its Windows customers, not of all of its customers. I bet they still make plenty of money with Azure and Office 365.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Precisely. Windows is a side project for Microsoft now.
3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 2 weeks ago
they do OK but services side including AI make way more…
Godort@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
This will rely on having an executive team that can predict trends beyond the next quarter.
Doubling down on advertising, telemetry in an overly bloated OS looks really good if you only care about the profits that brings for the next 3 months, rather than how much your userbase resents it. MS is fully capable of turning this around immediately by just making LTSC available to the public without needing to by a MAK through an enterprise channel, but that means throwing away some recurring revenue in favor of claiming a lost userbase
reddig33@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s Microsoft current CEO. All they are interested in is subscription revenue. Xbox hardware is next to go.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And that CEO completely turned the company around. Microsoft was circling the drain before they changed strategies.
Guidy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
And adding advertising to various parts of the OS.
Hey, Microsoft: de-shitify your OS if you want it to be more popular.
audaxdreik@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
You would hope, but this is the same thing we see across almost all industries these days. It’s almost like there’s a root cause for it, some sort of, Iunno, economic system we could blame …
But especially cable companies, for example. Has a dwindling customer base caused them to rethink their business strategies? Or has it caused them to try and bleed that dwindling base dryer even faster?
There’s no “learning” anymore, there’s riding the bus to the absolute pits of hell and just hoping you’re not the CEO to be the one that has to go down with it.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
For some reason modern business degree holders don’t even consider the possibility of increasing head coubts but instead maximising gains from remaining heads.
Same with employees, they see things like dirty stores and long lines and they try to force employees to work as sanitation crews and implement time limits to make lines faster long before they ever hire somebody new.
3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 2 weeks ago
they already have an their AI division earns way more than the Windows division. Matters little to them about Windows numbers dropping because in reality PCs as we know it are declining far more rapidly that anyone wants to say