Yesterday, a headline was accidentally published on the Microsoft News Center website that indicated the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, the second major update to Windows 10 since it was initially released last July, would become available on 02 August.
The headline was pulled very quickly and Microsoft confirmed for us that as of yesterday they had nothing to share about that subject.
Well things have changed in the last 24 hours and the Redmond company is now ready to share details about the updates release and also some new momentum numbers for the nearly year old operating system.
Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, the Corporate VP of the Windows and Devices Group, is now sharing officially that the Anniversary Update will be available on 02 August and that there are now over 350 million devices running Windows 10.
The blog post goes on to talk about Windows 10 Anniversary Update features:
- Windows Hello for Apps and Websites
- Improved periodic quick scans, notifications and summaries with Windows Defender
- Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection for Enterprises
- Windows Information Protection to separate personal and business data on user devices
- Windows Ink
- Cortana on Lock Screen
- Microsoft Edge improvements including extensions
- Better connected gaming experience between devices and Xbox console including Xbox Play Anywhere games for both devices
- Simplified device setup with Set Up School PCs app
Of course, just last night we heard the news about Messaging Anywhere being pulled from the Windows 10 Anniversary Update which has disappointed many Windows Insiders. It is however, expected to me integrated into Skype so the capability is not being removed permanently.
The other tidbit in this news from Microsoft is the fact that Windows 10 is now installed on over 350 million devices.
It was interesting to see them returning to using the term "devices" instead of "active users" as they have used the last couple of times they talked about the momentum of Windows 10 towards their goal of seeing the OS on one billion devices in the next two years.
Here is a quick summary of how the installed base of Windows 10 has grown according to Microsoft's released momentum numbers:
- 14 million upgrades in first 24 hours of availability (29 July 2015)
- 75 million devices in the first month of availability (26 August 2015)
- 110 million devices (06 October 2015)
- 200 million active devices (04 January 2016)
- 270 million active devices (30 March 2016)
- 300 million active devices (05 May 2016)
- 350 million devices (29 June 2016)
I once asked Microsoft their definition of an active user and they told me it was a device that had been actively used in the previous 30 days. I am not sure if they are using the terms active device/active user interchangeably or not but momentum has picked up based on these numbers.
Just looking at the last two sets of momentum numbers you can see the average number of daily installs/users/devices has gone up.
- Between 30 March and 05 May there were 30 million active devices added for an average daily install of 833K devices.
- For the period 05 May until today's new numbers there were 50 million active devices added and that results in an average daily install of 909K devices.
When you do the math it shows an overall average daily increase of 76K new devices between the two periods.
We have always expected this bump towards the end of the free upgrade offer, which expires in 30 days on 29 July 2016, but the big question will be if it continues after we get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update on 02 August 2016.
That next set of momentum numbers are going to be very interesting to see.
But, wait...there's probably more so be sure to follow me on Twitter and Google+.
