Recently during the Microsoft Edge summit, it was announced that Microsoft Edge has 330 million monthly devices. While I find this interesting I question these numbers this number was noted on Microsoft Edge Developer Twitter account and mention by Microsoft Executive saying
“A lot of improvements and a lot of new features doesn’t really mean anything if no one’s using it. I’m really thrilled to announce today that, earlier this month, Microsoft Edge passed over 330 million active devices worldwide. This number has more than doubled since the Edge summit last year.”
While these numbers are impressive I question if they are true. We all know I write about Microsoft a lot and I do enjoy many of their products but this number can’t be true or actuate. Let’s break this down by first saying Microsoft Edge only runs on Windows 10 no earlier version of Windows can run Edge.
Microsoft has said many times they have 500 Million for active Windows 10 devices. If 330 million are active Edge users that means over two-thirds of the people using Windows 10 are actively using Edge.
I know Microsoft has offered Books through Edge and have used Microsoft reward points to make Edge your default browser but even with Microsoft consumer services and points offerings there can just be no way.
One thing I do believe may push Microsoft number to that point are
- Every time you install or upgrade Windows 10 it opens the browser so that counts you as active user
- Xbox uses Edge as browser
- Edge is default PDF reader for edge
- Windows 10s does not let you install any other browser besides Edge
- Edge is default epub or book reader in Windows 10
In Microsoft defense, you have to realize that there are a lot of Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and even XP around so it’s possible users are moving to Chrome or Firefox to help eliminate browser compatibility issues. Since Edge only runs on Windows 10 Microsoft is going to have to rely on users upgrading their computers not just their browser like in the past and with Windows 7 having lifecycle till 2020 it may take Microsoft time to grow those numbers.
Chrome has taken the lead by far especially with the adoption of Google in education that took I am sure a large piece of Microsoft browser share and the fact Chrome runs on Macs and Apple recent number shows they sell around 5 billion dollars a year worth of computers not that many Apple users would install Edge but it hurts Microsoft number regardless since Edge is not cross-platform compatibility or mobile client.
I would like to point out this sounds like a big number and 330 million is a big number but its smaller than the number of users still running Internet Explorer. Compared to other browsers like Chrome which said in 2016 they had over 2 billion active users and Firefox has about 500 million active users making Edge a small number in comparison.