Attempting to target a launch date that’s prior to the back-to-school shopping season during August 2015, Microsoft is committing to a summer launch window for the company’s new operating system. Officially announced on the Blogging Windows blog today, Microsoft is planning to launch Windows 10 within 190 countries and the operating system will be available in 111 languages.
Of course, Microsoft is offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade for any user that’s currently running Windows 7 or Windows 8. That free upgrade offer is expected to kick off at the summer launch. According to the latest data tabulated by Net Applications, roughly 70 percent of all desktop users are either using Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. The free upgrade offer won’t be available to Windows XP or Vista users, which still comprise roughly 21 percent of all desktop users.
Also included within the blog post, Microsoft revealed multiple partnerships that will help the software company launch Windows 10 successfully in China. Specifically, Lenovo will be offer Windows 10 upgrade services at more than 2,500 locations that include service centers and retail stores.
Qihu 360, a Chinese Internet security company, announced plans to help facilitate the upgrade to Windows 10 among half a billion customers and Tencent, a social networking and gaming company, will create a Windows 10 version of the QQ app, an application with more than 800 million users.
Interestingly, Microsoft also plans to offer free upgrade to Windows 10 for all Windows users in China, regardless of the legality of the Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation. Specifically designed to fight rampant piracy in the country, recent studies have indicated that that roughly 75 to 85 percent of Windows users in China are using a non-genuine, pirated copy of the operating system. The rate of Windows piracy is much smaller in the United States with roughly 15 to 20 percent using pirated software.
