Around 500 million PCs are holding off upgrading to Windows 11, says Dell

"Windows users are transitioning to Windows 11 at a slower rate than the upgrade to Windows 10. Microsoft's 10-year-old operating system, which just hit the end of support phase, is still proving popular among consumers and businesses. Dell revealed this week that around 500 million machines are capable of upgrading to Windows 11, but are sticking with Windows 10 instead."

""We have about 500 million of them capable of running Windows 11 that haven't been upgraded," said Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke on a Q3 earnings call earlier this week, referring to the overall PC market, not just Dell's slice of machines. "And we have another 500 million that are four years old that can't run Windows 11." He sees this as an opportunity to guide customers towards the latest Windows 11 machines and AI PCs."

"It's the first time we've heard that as many as 500 million machines are holding off upgrading to Windows 11, and that a similar amount simply can't. Microsoft tightened its hardware requirements for Windows 11, leaving behind millions of PCs that were sold over the past decade. I expected millions of consumers to stick with Windows 10 if they couldn't upgrade due to the hardware requirements, but Microsoft's decade-old OS is clearly a lot stickier among consumer and commercial PCs than I thought."

Windows users are migrating to Windows 11 more slowly than the prior Windows 10 transition. Windows 10 has reached end-of-support yet remains widely used across consumer and business PCs. Dell reported roughly 500 million machines that can upgrade to Windows 11 but remain on Windows 10, and another 500 million older machines that cannot meet Windows 11's tightened hardware requirements. Dell plans to guide customers toward new Windows 11 machines and AI PCs while warning of a relatively flat PC market next year. Microsoft also claimed that nearly a billion people rely on Windows 11, though the term 'rely' lacks clear definition here.

Read at The Verge