Despite being free for almost a year, the company’s latest upgrade hasn’t been able to put any significant dent in Windows 7’s user base. It has only just overtaken the universally despised Windows 8.1 release.
You might think Microsoft made Windows 10 free just to copy Apple, which has been offering free OS X upgrades for years. There may be a bit of that, but the real reason is a desperate attempt to convince users to finally upgrade.
You see, Microsoft has a habit of biting Windows users in the backside, so many have become weary about upgrading to its latest releases. Even if they get good reviews, there’s always a fear something will be missing, things will break, or performance will take a hit.
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The chart below from Statista shows that although Windows 10 managed to overtake Windows 8/8.1 back in February, it still hasn’t grabbed a 20 percent share of the market yet. Meanwhile, Windows XP still holds onto more than 40 percent.
In comparison, Apple’s latest release, El Capitan, was installed on almost 45 percent of compatible Macs four months after making its debut — and believe it or not, that’s slow growth compared to previous OS X upgrades.
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On July 29, Microsoft free upgrade to Windows 10 will end, and it’ll cost $119. At which point, users are even less likely to upgrade, and adoption will become even slower.Interestingly, Bell really likes Windows 10 itself (which he describes as "actually very good"), which is a little surprising for a site that's more about MacOS computers, but still manages to highlight the big problem that MS have here -- the trust and goodwill that they enjoyed after XP (i.e. before Vista), or even after Windows 7 (and before Windows 8) is mostly just not there anymore, and their heavy-handed approach, with its anti-consumer UWP and telemetry "features," does not look like it's winning those hearts and minds back over.
Others have noticed, too, like Eugene Kim at Business Insider:
Microsoft has been running a rather aggressive campaign to get people to take advantage of its Windows 10 free upgrade, constantly throwing pop-up ads at random moments. There's even a word for it: nagware.
But so far, the campaign hasn't seen the runaway success Microsoft may have been hoping for. As this chart by Statista shows [Ed: it's the same chart], Windows 10 just surpassed the market share of Windows 8/8.1, which was poorly received, and still lags behind the user base of Windows 7 by a wide margin.When people coin a term like "nagware" to describe your latest product offering... well, let's just say that it probably ain't a good thing.
On a positive note, though, Windows 10 will continue to be a free upgrade for some people, even after July. From PC World:
Microsoft plans to end its one-year free upgrade program on July 29, after which Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users will have to pay for the privilege of using Windows 10. But that deadline will not apply to users of technologies designed for disabilities, Microsoft said in a blog post.
“We are continuing to deliver on our previously shared vision for accessibility for Windows 10 and we are committed to ensuring that users of assistive technologies have the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 10 for free as we do so,” Daniel Hubbell, a Microsoft accessibility technical evangelist, wrote.
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Examples of assistive technologies in Windows 10 include Narrator, a screen-reader app that vocalizes text; Magnifier, a digital magnifying glass for those with poor vision; and Speech Recognition, which allows you to control your PC using your voice alone. Microsoft also lists a number of certified third-party assistive accessories, including literacy software and Braille keyboards.It's unclear just how MS will go about figuring out who's using "assistive" devices or software. I know a few people who have serious RSI/carpal tunnel or arthritis, though, for whom Windows 10's voice command feature (a.k.a. Cortana) would be a boon, so this could be good for them, and it marks the first positive news about Windows 10 upgrading that I've seen in a long time. Baby steps, maybe?