Microsoft indicated it the last year that the free Windows 10 update program will be over on 29th of July. It was not a surprise when the Microsoft announced it because although the growth of Windows 10 was hugely initiated and promoted by the free upgrade offer. It, howsoever, had slowed done since the September of 2015.
In September, the global user share of the Windows 10's as measured by metrics vendor Net Applications grew by 28% over the month prior. After that, the rapid growth of the Windows 10 which was increasing every month was slowed down, it was 21% in October, fell to 13% in November and 10% in December. Although it gained a rise again in January 2016 to 20% and the growth is going down since then. Its growth rate was 8% and 11% in March and April respectively.
Microsoft has now ended the free of cost Windows 10 upgrade offer on 29th of July 2016. Now the customers of Microsoft will have to pay around $ 119 to shift from Windows 7 or 8. They either have to pay the amount if they want to keep using the Microsoft Windows otherwise they have to buy the new Operating System (OS). Microsoft was generous while providing the customers with free upgrade program because it has been in everyone’s awareness that changing Windows costs money.
If we compare the strategies of Microsoft with other companies, it will be revealed that all the other operating systems have provided their operating systems for free to its users and the upgrading is also free. For example, Apple is one of the major vendors of operating systems which manufacture a new operating system every year, and it includes both the mobile and PC versions, but since 2013 all of them have been free of cost. Google is another OS vendor which provides its users with free Android OS as well as Chrome. Interestingly enough, the upgrading of this operating system is also free as said by Google. Not to forget, Ubuntu is one the Linux systems which has been free since forever.
Whatsoever, the companies like Google and Apple know the cost of selling the operating systems and their upgrading system for free will, cost them a lot of money, but they realize that the advantages of it will be manifold. The reason behind is that the people will keep using the system, and it will benefit the manufacturers. The manufacturers of these system place ads on the services like Gmail, Docs, and Google Search, etc. which earns them the revenue needed and hence increase their income. Apple makes a bank on sales from its app store (and its devices), which can't exist without its OS.
As we always thought; Microsoft offered the Windows 10 upgrade for free, we were mistaken because just like Apple and Google, it was the advantages which pushed Microsoft to make that offer. Microsoft required consumers to use Windows 10 because they wanted to raise utilization and sale of the app store owned by Microsoft. The app store cannot be operated on the older versions of the Windows like 7 or 8, so they can’t miss the huge amount of users which cannot access that app store. Other programs that only operate on Windows 10 include “Universal Apps” and it also does not work on the Windows 7 or 8. It can easily be inferred that why Microsoft needed to make that decision of free Windows 10 upgrade program.
Microsoft was so anxious about not making the Windows 10 launch as much of a failure as Windows 8 was. Like any other business project, Microsoft’s Windows 10 launch was filled with doubts that their new Windows might not get the same recognition as Windows 7 and previous OS. In fact even naming it ‘Windows 10’ was an effort to distance the platform from its much (if unfairly) defamed antecedents. The free upgrade program for Windows 10 has given much success to the Microsoft’s Windows 10. According to Microsoft, they have got around 300 million Windows 10 activation in only ten months of its launch. It is known as the most rapid growth of any Windows implementation in the history of operating systems usage. The growth of the Windows 10 even surpassed the success of Windows 7 which was a big hit when it was launched.
Some technology analysts still believe that Microsoft will provide the last minute extension of the offer of Windows 10 free upgrade. The eleventh-hour extension definitely will be announced after the deadline has passed because we can’t deny the significant number of last minute activations,considering that the Windows 10 upgrade is over, and people will no longer be able to do it without spending any money. www.paklap.pk still has good news for the Windows 7 and Windows 8 users that Microsoft has announced that they will stop irritating the customers to update the Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10 after the offer of the free upgrade is over.
