Microsoft won't get Windows 10 on one billion devices by 2018 due to smartphone failure

Microsoft's ambitious Windows 10 target will be missed by miles

Software giant Microsoft has admitted that its ambitious target to get Windows 10 running on one billion devices - including PCs, laptops, smartphones and pretty much anything else with a microprocessor - by 2018 is likely to be missed.

The company unveiled the target when it launched Windows 10 last year, indicating that it would make the latest Windows operating system by far the most popular the company has ever released. That push was boosted by the decision to make it available for free to users of Windows 7 and 8.

However, despite reaching 350 million devices since its launch last year, the company has since admitted that one billion is probably out of reach owing to the rapid decline in sales in its smartphone business, which was expected to help this target to be reached.

"We're pleased with our progress to date, but due to the focusing of our phone hardware business it will take longer than full year 2018 for us to reach our goal of one billion monthly active devices," the company said in a statement sent to ZDNet.

Computing contacted Microsoft for more information about the statement but had received no reply at the time of publication.

Microsoft has blamed the shortfall on the crash in sales of in its phone business,which by some counts has fallen to BlackBerry levels of sub-one-per-cent market share in recent quarters.

It is also likely that installations on laptops and other desktop machines have perhaps not been as high as hoped, especially given some of the negative backlash after Microsoft's attempts to enforce the Windows 10 update on all users, not mention question marks over privacy.

The free update to Windows 10 will expire in a few weeks, which will undoubtedly slow the uptake even more, and is not why the folks at Redmond have had to admit defeat in their goal of one billion devices on Windows 10 by 2018.