• 10 million Windows Insiders makes the beta test program the best marketing move yet

    Laurent Giret at OnMicrosoft nailed this one. The Windows Insider program – the beta testing program that includes two rings of next-version testing and one ring of current-level patch testing — now has 10 million registered users.

    Per Giret:

    The program reached 1 million members a couple of weeks after the release of the first Windows 10 preview build on October 1, 2014. From there, the number grew to 3 million Insiders by March of 2015, then to 7 million a year ago. It was about time for an update, which Microsoft exec Yusuf Mehdi recently provided in a blog post on LinkedIn.

    Mehdi said:

    We count over 10M Windows Insiders today, many of them fans, who test and use the latest build of Windows 10 on a daily basis. Their feedback comes fast and furious, they have a relentless bar of what they expect, but it so inspires our team and drives our very focus on a daily basis.

    Of course, Microsoft doesn’t know how many fans they have. But the 10,000,000 nose count for Insider accounts is impressive by any measure. Mehdi was emphasizing Xbox fandom in his post, but the number’s still a sizable fraction of the 400 million monthly active Win10 devices. (That 400 million number is six months old, and I haven’t heard any updates.)

    Mary Branscome – one of my favorite Microsoft observers – notes in her comments on the LinkedIn post:

    how do you make sure you’re not being overly influenced by the vocal minority?

    Any way you slice it, though, the Windows Insider program has been a resounding success for Microsoft marketing. Giving beta testers a feeling that they’re changing the course of Windows 10 development is an outstanding achievement.

    Thanks to fp for the heads-up!