Windows 10 Device Usage: February

Windows 10 Device Usage: February

A new report from AdDuplex examines the relative popularity of PC makers, Surface devices, OS versions, and more.

As you may recall, AdDuplex bills itself as the largest cross-promotion network for Windows apps. AdDuplex empowers developers and publishers to promote their apps for free by helping each other. And each month it provides a glimpse at which Windows devices people are actually using.

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Here’s what we see this month.

HP is the most popular Windows 10 PC maker by far. And rightfully so, as it makes the best Windows 10 PCs. HP controls 24 percent of this market, compared to 14 percent for number two Dell and 12 percent for Lenovo. Microsoft, by the way, is at 7, with just 2.5 percent. (To be clear, this is usage, not market share, which is sales.)

Windows 10 users have now moved to the Anniversary Update. After a troubled and prolonged launch period, the Anniversary Update is the most-often-used Windows 10 version, with over 90 percent share. The other versions—and Insider versions—barely even register.

Screen resolutions. This one is interesting: This month, AdDuplex looked at the most commonly-used screen resolutions on Windows 10 PCs. By far, 1366 x 768 is the biggest, with 33.3 percent of all usage, followed by 1920 x 1080 (21 percent), 1600 x 900 (7.8) and then a bunch of barely-used resolutions.

Surface Pro 4 dominates Surface usage. Surface Pro 4 accounts for 40 percent of all Surface device usage, followed by Surface Pro 3 (27 percent), Surface 3 (14.2 percent), and then Surface Pro 1 (7.3 percent). Where’s Surface Book? In 5th place, with 6.3 percent. And if you add this all up, all Pro models combined account for over 80 percent of all Surface usage. (Surface Studio is a non-event at 0.1 percent.)

Interesting stuff as always.

 

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  • Bart

    Premium Member
    21 February, 2017 - 11:24 am

    <p>Good to see the Anniversary update is the most used Win 10 version. First sign that Microsofts Windows 10 update policy is working</p>

  • Mark from CO

    21 February, 2017 - 11:56 am

    <p>Paul:</p><p>Just wonder how many people use W10? Based on Microsoft’s silence these past many months, I suspect usage is still south of 500 million.&nbsp;Also makes one wonder if 1 billion is a realistic goal, even if it takes 10 years.</p><p>Mark from CO &nbsp;</p>

    • Wizzwith

      21 February, 2017 - 2:11 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#43980">In reply to Mark from CO:</a></em></blockquote><p>I suspect &lt;500 million for sure, probably 450 or so, but maybe closer to 500; MS would probably hold off on an announcement till some big event I would guess. 1 Billion will happen before the start of 2020, &lt; 3 years from now, certainly not 10 (assuming there are still 1.5 billion overall Windows devices in use and that will remain the ceiling…). There's a lull now, as most consumer upgrades are finished, so it's just new sales + biz/gov migrations that adds to growth. While many organizations have already been doing some migrations to 10, it's really only starting in earnest this year. Migrations will accelerate through this year so will start to see the needle move again. Make no mistake, orgs are or will be migrating relatively quickly this time; this is not WinXP to 7 again. The DoD for example set a goal for all PC's to be in Win10 start of this year. That was more a statement of intent rather than a concrete goal, but many branches of gov are in the process and will be done in the next couple years. Likewise, a good number of business are finished with their pilots or soon will be, and have plans to get all primary PC's (there are always needs to keep old version for support teams, testing, etc.) to Win10 by end of year or next. Of course there are always going to be laggards, but the majority of PC's will be running Win10 by 2020. </p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      21 February, 2017 - 2:42 pm

      <p><a href="#43980"><em>In reply to Mark from CO:</em></a></p><p>Unless President Trump overhauls Dodd-Frank and Sarbanes-Oxley, regulatory oversight in financial services will require a very large chunk of workplace PCs to be running something newer than Windows 7 by mid-January 2020. I doubt enterprises would just transition to Windows 8.1. 1 billion Windows 10 PCs isn't unlikely by year-end 2019.</p>

    • Narg

      22 February, 2017 - 9:59 am

      <blockquote><a href="#43980"><em>In reply to Mark from CO:</em></a></blockquote><p>In checking w4schools, it appears Windows 10 will overtake Windows 7 in about 2 months…</p>

  • Waethorn

    21 February, 2017 - 12:52 pm

    <p>How many phones again?</p>

    • RonH

      Premium Member
      21 February, 2017 - 1:13 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44033"><em>In reply to Waethorn:</em></a></blockquote><p>4 in my house</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

      • Wizzwith

        21 February, 2017 - 1:44 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#44036">In reply to RonH:</a></em></blockquote><p>LOL 🙂 </p>

  • skane2600

    21 February, 2017 - 2:17 pm

    <p>Hardly news that the version of Win10 that MS forces on their users is the most used. But thanks for not saying the most "popular".</p>

    • RGS Consulting

      21 February, 2017 - 2:34 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44077"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote><em>It is the best MS OS, love it!!</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • skane2600

        21 February, 2017 - 3:57 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#44087">In reply to RGS Consulting:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'd love it a lot more if it BSOD'd less often than Win7 instead of more often. I think one's experience of Win10 from an upgrade is different than what it is if it was the OS that came with the PC.</p>

        • jimchamplin

          Premium Member
          21 February, 2017 - 4:47 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#44136"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p>I wouldn't use an upgraded install if you paid me. Clean install every time for me.</p>

          • skane2600

            23 February, 2017 - 11:48 am

            <blockquote><em><a href="#44150">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>The only clean install I'd want would be one done by the PC maker. Reinstalling over an already used PC is far more problematic than an upgrade.</p>

  • jeffrye

    21 February, 2017 - 2:18 pm

    <p>Interesting numbers. I noticed that the Surface RT is completely gone from their stats but I still use mine several times a week (it's great for taking notes and a few simple games).</p><p><br></p><p>I also noticed that Windows Phone 8 still dominates with over 76%. Wow! Has Windows 10 caught up with it in terms of functionality yet? I don't have a Windows phone any more but I remember Cortana constantly crashing while trying to read me texts via bluetooth. Is that fixed?</p>

  • hrlngrv

    Premium Member
    21 February, 2017 - 2:36 pm

    <p>Slide 3 in the report states data collected over the day of Feb 20, 2016. I figure the year was a typo, but a fine indication of lack of effective editing. Also, data is collected from what AdDuplex describes as Windows phone apps. Are PCs running Windows phone apps (presumably including UWP apps) representative of all PCs in use? Then there's the fact that it's contrary to what IDC and Gartner show for OEM PC shipments, which have put Lenovo on top for a while, followed by HP with Dell a ways back at #3. Maybe enterprises don't like HP and mostly buy Lenovo and Dell PCs to reimage with Windows 7. All in all, sure looks like skewed sampling, maybe even biased sampling.</p><p>Odd to see Surface Pro (1) with higher usage than Surface Book. Also interesting to interpret Surface Book and Surface Studio as non-Pro devices. Are they really comparable? Studio most definitely can't be used as a tablet, and Book can be but how often? If they're excluded, then given the implosion in Windows RT, only the Surface 3 would be a non-Pro tablet. How meaningful that it has 15.2% of the tablet-only Surface usage?</p><p>AdDuplex may have useful data for Windows phones, but it contrasts too much with other PC data sources to seem like it has reliable data for PCs.</p>

    • Chris_Kez

      Premium Member
      21 February, 2017 - 3:14 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#44089">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>AdDuplex shows usage not sales/shipments, which potentially explains disparity with Gartner and IDC.</p>

      • hrlngrv

        Premium Member
        21 February, 2017 - 4:12 pm

        <p><a href="#44124"><em>In reply to Chris_Kez:</em></a></p><p>OK. How wonderful that the few, the very few, who use UWP and phone(?) apps on their PCs use HP PCs more than any other PC brand to do so.</p>

        • jimchamplin

          Premium Member
          21 February, 2017 - 4:44 pm

          <blockquote><a href="#44137"><em>In reply to hrlngrv:</em></a></blockquote><p>I use UWP apps on myriad machines such as a Lenovo lappy, a converted Mac mini and a PDP-11.</p><p>True story.</p>

          • BinBinLives

            21 February, 2017 - 5:11 pm

            <blockquote><em><a href="#44149">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><blockquote>"I use UWP apps"</blockquote><p><br></p><p>I am so sorry.</p>

          • hrlngrv

            Premium Member
            22 February, 2017 - 12:10 am

            <p><a href="#44149"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></p><p>Any you are one of the few, the very few, the happily deluded few using such apps. Enjoy!</p>

          • YouWereWarned

            22 February, 2017 - 3:30 pm

            <blockquote><a href="#44149"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote><em>PDP-11–sweet! These young sprites will never get to know the joy of successfully toggling the boot-loader into a PDP-8. And are probably clueless as to the role of DEC and Dave Cutler in most everything Microsoft.</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    21 February, 2017 - 3:22 pm

    <p>"<strong style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">HP is the most popular Windows 10 PC maker by far.</strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">&nbsp;And rightfully so, as it makes the best Windows 10 PCs."</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Paul, since this data is based on usage wouldn't a large chunk of those HP machines actually be older Windows 7 and 8 PCs that were upgraded to Windows 10? That said, I agree HP is doing great stuff with their current lineup.</span></p>

  • wolters

    Premium Member
    21 February, 2017 - 4:34 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I respect the people over at Windows Central and they are in my RSS feeds. That said, articles like this are showing how much in denial they over over Windows Phone: </span><a href="www.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-still-isnt-dead-heres-why" target="_blank">www.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-still-isnt-dead-heres-why</a></p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    21 February, 2017 - 8:01 pm

    <p>I personally don't think HP makes the best Windows 10 pc's, but they do excel at making pragmatic choices like what they did for the battery in the x360 15-inch. Anyhoo, I really like what Dell has done with their lineup.</p>

    • dnation70

      Premium Member
      21 February, 2017 - 8:24 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44170"><em>In reply to rameshthanikodi:</em></a><em>can't beat home built</em></blockquote><p><br></p>

      • rameshthanikodi

        22 February, 2017 - 12:23 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#44174">In reply to dnation70:</a></em></blockquote><p>show me pictures of your home built laptop.</p>

      • Narg

        22 February, 2017 - 9:52 am

        <blockquote><a href="#44174"><em>In reply to dnation70:</em></a></blockquote><p>For power and flexibility, home built does shine.&nbsp; But for best bang for your buck, OEM still holds true.</p>

    • fbman

      22 February, 2017 - 1:02 am

      <p><br></p><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote><a href="#44170"><em>In reply to rameshthanikodi:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>I am also not a fan of HP machines. I look after our audit solution on about 50 Laptops, which about 10 of them are HP's and the rest are Lenovo. Its always the HP machines which give the issues. </blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>For personal use, I custom build all my machines, cant beat a custom built machine. I looked at a laptop, but the specs I wanted pushed the laptop way out of my budget. </blockquote><p><br></p>

  • lordbaal1

    21 February, 2017 - 8:23 pm

    <p>adduplex is for Windows phone. A lot of people uses desktop apps. So you can't look at this for desktops.</p><p>adduplex are only looking at 5000 apps anyways. How many apps people use, does not equate to how many people use it. The very few apps i use, I doubt they even use addeplex. </p><p>the other thing, adduplex is only using data collected on February, 20. You can't just look at 1 day.</p>

    • hrlngrv

      Premium Member
      22 February, 2017 - 12:07 am

      <p><a href="#44173"><em>In reply to lordbaal1:</em></a></p><blockquote>. . . data collected on February, 20 . . .</blockquote><p>A holiday in the USA too. Memorial Day, Independence Day and Thanksgiving Day would be the only holidays likely to be even less representative of US usage.</p>

  • JC

    22 February, 2017 - 3:23 am

    <p>Hey Paul, I just read your article Microsoft Just Lost the Windows 10 Privacy FUD War (Premium). I think it's funny that no one has asked the question on how AdDuplex collects it's stats from windows 10!!!</p>

  • Narg

    22 February, 2017 - 9:51 am

    <p>The 1366×768 resolution thing tells me that cheap laptops are still quite abundant and used heavily.</p>

    • jwpear

      Premium Member
      22 February, 2017 - 10:26 am

      <blockquote><a href="#44240"><em>In reply to Narg:</em></a></blockquote><p>It is surprising to me that the 1366×768&nbsp;resolution is still very popular.&nbsp; I would&nbsp;have expected HD to be&nbsp;mainstream at this point.&nbsp; I guess there were a lot of old PC's upgraded to Windows 10 during the free upgrade period.</p>

    • ben55124

      Premium Member
      23 February, 2017 - 1:41 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#44240"><em>In reply to Narg:</em></a></blockquote><p>MS needs to impose a minimum DPI that would preclude WXGA at anything over 11".</p>

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