UK Windows 10 adoption levels off following end of free upgrade offer

UK adoption of the latest Microsoft operating system had been steadily rising before the offer ended

The adoption of Windows 10 has levelled off in the UK following the end of Microsoft's free upgrade offer.

When Windows 10 was launched last summer, Microsoft gave customers the chance to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, in an offer which expired on 29 July this year.

Figures from market watcher StatCounter show that in the three weeks up to the end of July, adoption of Windows 10 in the UK was rising about one percentage point a week, peaking at 29.95 per cent when the offer expired. Adoption levelled off in the following three weeks, falling to 29.61 per cent the week after and to 29.63 per cent a week later.

Microsoft only occasionally announces an official update on how many customers are using Windows 10. Earlier this summer, the firm admitted it would not reach its goal to have the OS running on one billion devices by 2018, claiming changes to its phone business scuppered the plan.

Kelvin Kirby, CEO of Microsoft partner Technology Associates, told CRN it is to be expected that Windows 10 adoption would level off immediately after the upgrade offer ended.

"The free upgrade was obviously a promotion but one suggestion was to upgrade to Windows 10 and then downgrade back again and stay on your current platform," he said. "Once you've initiated it, you can go back to it. A lot of people have done that - myself included. I have done it on my normal laptop as I have issues with VPNs and so on.

"The enterprise is still lagging behind a bit. But you'd expect to see a lag after a free offer. There's no incentive to go for it."