Microsoft always wanted Windows 10 to become a great success and put much effort into it. Unfortunately, it looks like its future might not be as bright as the Redmond giant was expecting one year ago. Right now, Windows 10 has about 350 million users, but one year ago, Microsoft said it would reach 1 billion by mid-2018. However, they have just unveiled that this target will not be reached as expected.
According to ZDNet, Microsoft officials still think that Windows 10 is capable of reaching 1 billion devices some day, but "it's unlikely to happen by 2018 as originally projected." When asked for further clarification, a spokesperson for the company wrote: "We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business, it will take longer than FY18 for us to reach our goal of 1 billion monthly active devices."
The main reason for this apparent failure is that Windows 10 Mobile-powered devices completely missed all Microsoft's initial targets. This mobile platform is not dead yet, but Microsoft officials admitted that "Windows Phone isn't much of a focus for Microsoft in calendar 2016." These being said, it only remains to see when will Windows 10 manage to reach the 1 billion active devices goal.