FORBES Update July 17th
- Microsoft has now updated its lifecycle support page to list Windows
10. It states the end of Mainstream Support as October 13, 2020 and the
end of Extended Support (security) as October 14, 2025. This is great
news and I think these time periods are fair and inline with previous
Windows releases.
Is
This A Two Year Con?
So what does “two to four years” mean? Is it two or is it four?
In light of no official clarification from Microsoft the slides can
help – if not result in formal conclusions. In a change of language
Microsoft states device lifetime will be determined by “customer type”
whereas it had previously stated it would be determined by “form
factor”.
This may prove crucial. For example ....
[FULL]
Windows 10 is famously ‘free’, but Microsoft has been worryingly silent
about just how free it really is. Now, only 17 days before release,
leaks suggest ‘free’ Windows 10 might not be a good deal at all…
The news comes from ComputerWorld which attained Microsoft internal
slides that strongly suggest many Windows 10 owners will have to start
paying to receive updates within two years. The key lines ComputerWorld
discovered are:
“Revenue allocated is deferred and recognized on a straight-line basis
over the estimated period the software upgrades are expected to be
provided by estimated device life…. [The estimated device life] can
range from two to four years.”
‘Device life’ is the key phrase here. Microsoft has already stated
revenue earned from Windows 10 must be deferred because of the free
upgrade model (cash isn’t taken upfront), but it repeatedly stressed
Windows 10 owners can expect to get free updates for the “supported
lifetime of the device”.
The problem is Microsoft hadn’t defined how long the ‘supported
lifetime of the device’ will be and now we see it: “two to four years”.
