Just two weeks in and the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 10 technical preview already has more than 1 million registrants (which isn’t necessarily the same as downloads and installs) who have sent back more than 200,000 pieces of feedback, Joe Belfiore on the Windows blog. This enthusiasm for an experimental OS that’s not even really guaranteed to work shows just how poor the reception of Windows 8/8.1 has been.
Most Windows 10 users launch 7+ apps per day
Belfiore doesn’t tell us how many people are running Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows 10 on a daily basis, but he does tell us that only 36% of the installs are on virtual machines. That means nearly two-thirds of the installs are on PCs, what he calls ‘medium-term use’. And it doesn’t seem like people are just installing it on the dated PC they don’t use anymore; 68% of users launch at least 7 apps per day, 25% launch at least 26 apps per day, and 5% launch 68 apps per day, so most of the people using Windows 10 are putting in real time with the new OS and at least some have simply switched over even at this early date.
Microsoft Windows 10 is like ‘building a plane while flying it’
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) tried to reimagine its flagship product by making Windows 8 look and feel more like the Windows Phone OS, but people who spent the last ten or twenty years getting used to doing things one way (eg using the Start button) weren’t thrilled to have to learn an entirely new approach, as Microsoft probably should have been able to guess. Windows 8.1 was quickly released so that people who hated the Metro interface wouldn’t be forced to use it quite so much. We don’t really know why Windows 9 was scrapped, but someone at Microsoft must have realized that they couldn’t afford another flop.
So this time, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is including its users in the development process so there won’t be any big surprises.
“It’s early days right now, but you’ll see the fruits of your engagement over the next year as you’ll see the product evolve,” writes Belfiore. “What we’re doing is almost like building a plane while flying it with you as our co-engineers. (And yes, that means sometimes the ride will get bumpier!)”
