Microsoft sees opportunity in old computers that still need to be upgraded from Windows 7

[steven36]

Key Points

• The Windows 7 upgrade cycle is not as far along as it usually is this far along, Microsoft finance chief Amy Hood said on Monday.
• Around 23% of Windows desktop machines are still running Windows 7.

 

 

 

Microsoft still sees plenty of opportunity to for customers to upgrade machines from Windows 7 to Windows 10,  and not only because of coronavirus fallout.

 

Usually, Microsoft sees a pronounced increase in revenue around the time it ends support for an older version of its Windows operating system as individuals and companies buy PCs with the latest from Microsoft. Then, over time, the impact tails off, making for tougher year-over-year upgrade comparisons.

 

It's taking longer this time around, which could spread out the revenue generated from the upgrade process to additional quarters. Analysts watch Windows revenue closely, as it gives Microsoft 15% of its revenue and meaningful profit.

 

Amy Hood, Microsoft's finance chief, indicated to analysts in January that China's public health situation and a chip shortage could be factors in the prolonged Windows refresh cycle.

 

At the time, she issued a quarterly revenue guidance range for the business segment including Windows that was wider than usual to reflect impact from the coronavirus in particular. Then, last week, in the midst of a market selloff, Microsoft said it did not expect to reach that guidance range, sending Microsoft and other stocks lower.

 

The cycle is not as far along as it usually is at this point in the timeline, Hood said on Monday during a conversation with Morgan Stanley analyst Keith Weiss at Morgan Stanley's Technology Media and Telecom conference in San Francisco.

 

Microsoft ended support for Windows 7 in January.

 

Here's what Hood said:

 

I think, in general, these cycles tend to look similar. But what I would say is this one is certainly more complicated by a number of things that I'll talk about in a second. What is different about this is there still remains quite a bit of opportunity more than we saw at this point in the prior cycle. A lot of that exists where you would expect it to exist, which is small and medium business segment. Not unusual, but it means that we do have some room to continue to grow and likely means that the curve will look different than last time in terms of its shape.

 

Now, then you add to it two complicating factors, one of which you brought up, which have been chip supply, which has impacted some of the growth rates over the past bit. And then, the second one which is the supply chain currently in China in terms of bindings and productions. And so those will — and as we've talked about, will impact the quarterly results. And so I'm not sure it'll look like the exact same curve in terms of the prior cycle, not just because we have a little bit more left to go than we have had in prior cycles, but also because it's been a bit more volatile due to those two issues as we work through them.

 

Microsoft released Windows 7 in 2009. Other than Windows 10, it's the most popular version of Windows on desktop, with about 23% share in February, according to Statcounter. Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, which came out in 2012 and 2013, respectively, are less widely used than Windows 7. Microsoft said in 2018 that there were 1.5 billion Windows devices.

 

"I feel great that we're executing well on end of support," Hood said on Monday, speaking of older versions of Windows PC licenses and other products. "It builds a great funnel for us as we think about transition to the cloud for customers and helping them on their hybrid journey."

 

 

Source

[mp68terr]

Quote

Microsoft sees opportunity in old computers that still need to be upgraded from Windows 7

So far, and according to msoft recommendations, the way to w10 for old computers was to upgrade both software and hardware. Has this changed?

On the old computers where w10 was tested it was a nightmare (slow, continuous access to the drive, etc.).

[steven36]

I dont know what your  talking about?   in 2015 they pushed Windows 10  on Windows 7 and 8.1 users free upgrade they wanted everybody to upgrade. Its like  4 years and millions of users too late to tell people to buy new hardware . i upgraded all my PCs to Windows  10 before  and 2 of them i ran Windows 10 some years  . 1 of them I rolled back to Windows 7  , 1 of them after i ran Windows 10 on it awhile then  I put just Linux on it and the other one I ran Windows 10 on it tell RS4  came out  2 years ago then I put Windows 8.1 and Linux  on it because i got tired  of upgrades  2 times a year . It just depends i guess if your system can handle Windows 10  well are not . But they sell cheap Windows 10 PCs  with only 4 GB Ram but to run really good  you need at lest 8 gb of ram,  but   if you only have 2 GB  you may want to try Linux and just use Windows 7  offline or something . 4 years ago  many people upgraded to Windows 10 . Sure they would rather you buy new hardware so they get paid the Windows tax  but they also  make money off  you beta testing  for them for free for business .

 

People on Windows   8.1   are even beta testing  if they have all updates installed because they have a service in it now  that use to be opt out but they changed that when they  backported it from Windows 10 and made it a critical update.   It's called  compatibly telemetry  were they check your system if it is compatible with updates and software  because i seen it calling home and blocked  it with my firewall..

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-makes-telemetry-updates-for-windows-7-and-8-1-critical-updates/

 

I guess  I need to run  remove-win10-spyware.bat

https://gist.github.com/non7top/768e4ca13c8e739cef2b298ede817928

 

So it dont  be using up cpu but its blocked  from calling home anyway. Just last time i installed updates i just updated  all updates and i forgot to check had they came back.from being hidden  I been hiding  updates since 2015   windows sux only thing better about  Windows 8.1  is its its not got Cloud integration as bad and its more stable .

 

 

  Windows 10  was not 1st version of Windows they gave away for free they been giving Windows away since Windows 7 .They gave away Windows 7 to people who  bought new Vista PCs  after Windows 7 came out  because I got Windows 7 free in the mail also they gave Windows 7 to collages and i had a freind who had access to it and he gave me a legit key . Also Windows 8.1 with Bing they didn't charge OEM vendors a Windows tax if they used  that instead so they got Windows 8.1  for free the only difference in it was it had Bing as the default search engine in IE and windows 8.1 came like that anyway .     

 

 

[banned]

See that link in the screenshot that says "Don't remind me again"? Click it and enjoy, lol.

[steven36]

If you have all updates installed on windows 7  and don't have it blocked   they still spying  on you  and you dont even get updates they using it to see how many people still on Windows 7 and no telling what else.