1) Yes it is over a billion. But there is no forced mechanism to upgrade a PC. As you can see here, there are some people that stupidly pride themselves on running a 11-year-old copy of XP. Why is it assumed that the full complement of Windows machine are EXPECTED to be running 8? All Macs don’t run the latest version nor do all people that use Ubuntu.
Yet 100,000,000 of a billion is “bad”?
2) 100,000 units?
You talk like someone who is 15 years old. Did you know that?
“Yet 100,000,000 of a billion is “bad”?”
I’d say so, assuming MSFT is in business to make a profit by reselling products to its customers. Compare the development cost to the net profit. As such, I would call it a lemon.
“Why is it assumed that the full complement of Windows machine are EXPECTED to be running 8?”
I would expect at least 10% to upgrade to a new, worthwhile product. Perhaps they saw no value to the upgrade. Or perhaps they were turned off by the McDonald’s Cash Register Interface approach. Who knows why. We only know they said, “no”. Maybe MSFT can salvage they development cost in the fix they are going to give away for free to victims.