Microsoft has once again asserted that there are 1.5 billion "Windows-powered" PCs in use worldwide. This number gives us a bit of insight into the PC market, both compared to the past and to its more modern competitors.

News of the 1.5 billion number comes courtesy of the software giant's Microsoft By The Numbers website, which hadn't been updated in quite a while. But as Neowin pointed out this morning, it was just updated for the first time in about three years.