Microsoft to make nearly $10 billion after Windows 10 hits October death date

Microsoft will make nearly $10 billion after Windows arrives on the chopping block next month, as enterprise systems will still need security updates.

Microsoft to make nearly $10 billion after Windows 10 hits October death date
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Tech and Science Editor
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TL;DR: Microsoft is projected to earn nearly $10 billion in the first year after Windows 10 support ends on October 14, as millions of commercial users pay for extended security updates. With 121 million enterprise devices still running Windows 10, continued paid support addresses critical cybersecurity risks post-end-of-life.

Microsoft is estimated to make close to $10 billion in the first twelve months of Windows 10 hitting its end-of-life period, as owners of the millions of commercial devices around the world running Windows 10 will opt-in to pay Microsoft for continued support for the now unsupported operating system.

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The estimations come from Nexthink, and while they aren't based on official figures from Microsoft, the estimations do reveal some interesting points to consider. Microsoft stated in June that more than 1.4 billion devices are running Windows, and according to Nexthink, approximately 30% of those devices are being used commercially or within the public sector.

That means there are about 420 million enterprise Windows. Using data from Statcounter, about 43% of Windows users are still running Windows 10, meaning there are 181 million users facing the looming end of support cutoff scheduled for this October.

For those who don't know, Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows 10 on October 14, meaning that after that date, the operating system will no longer receive security updates, making machines running this operating system exponentially more susceptible to security breaches.

Windows 10 machines working in the public sector, or within organizations cannot risk the ramping chance of security breaches, especially since hacking efforts will undoubtedly be on the increase following the cutoff date. So, what do they do?

Microsoft has offered Windows 10 users continued security support for a fee: $61 per device for Year One, $122 per device for Year Two, and $244 per device for Year Three. Notably, customers using Microsoft Intune or Windows Autopatch are eligible for a 25% discount, bringing the cost down to approximately $45 per device in Year One.

Nexthink estimates that by the time October 14 arrives, there will still be around 121 million Windows 10 PCs running in enterprises around the world, and at $61 per device, Microsoft will be making approximately $7.3 billion in just 12 months.