[German]In case anyone hasn't noticed, it's 2025. Microsoft has also come out and said that 2025 will be the "year of Windows 11 PC updates". After all, Windows 10 will cease to be supported in October 2025 and half to two thirds of all Windows clients are not yet on Windows 11. Everything is "hungry for Windows 11 and new Copilot+PCs". Some people are walking around Redmond with dollar signs in their eyes. I have a few more poison pills from the reality.
Microsoft's world is Copilot+PC with Windows 11
The colleagues from Arstechnica already announced it a few hours ago in the following BlueSkye post and refer to the blog post CES 2025: The year of the Windows 11 PC refresh from Microsofts marketing guy (official title Executive Vice President, Consumer Chief Marketing Officer) Yusuf Mehdi.
Mehdi has ventured a prediction for the future in light of the Consumer Electronic Show (CES 2025). After singing the praises of how great 2024 was (remember, Microsoft wanted to introduce its Recall function with Windows in the summer of 2024, but that failed badly, and what Redmond threw at people as Windows 11 24H2 on October 1, 2024, is no gem either), the company is now looking to 2025 with great hope.
After all, they now have the Copilot+ PC, based on the Windows 11 operating system. These devices are the fastest, most intelligent and most secure Windows PCs ever built. This launch marks a significant milestone on the journey of transferring the power of AI from the cloud to the PC. This AI-enabled PC milestone has been met with enthusiasm by customers and is expected to continue until 2025.
These high-performance and secure Windows 11 PCs have set new standards for speed, intelligence and security, all with incredible battery life that surpasses anything on the market today. In fact, Copilot+ PCs are up to five times faster than the most popular 5-year-old Windows PCs still in use today. The top models are up to 58% faster than a MacBook Air with M32. It makes the reader dizzy how quickly they can type in the AI questions with the new things and hope for answers.
Somewhere in the text, there is a small note that this Windows 10 will no longer be supported as of October 14, 2025. So there's an absolute rush to get one of these Copilot+PCs, who will still be working with yesterday's old stuff in 2025?
The reality is sobering
Normally, in much earlier years, everyone would have joined in with Microsoft's good news and spread the word about "a new PC at last". But even Arstechnica headlines "there's the carrot of new features and the stick of no updates for old PCs". Enthusiasm sounds different. And our colleagues at The Register headline this article "Declining market share, unwanted features – no, it's not consumers who are wrong …" – that's a very clear slap in the face for Microsoft.
Microsoft man Mehdi flutes: "We believe Windows 11 is available at a time when the world needs it most – with advanced AI capabilities and modern security benefits that customers will expect in 2025 and beyond. As the world moves to Windows 11 with us, we'll welcome them with new features, enhanced security, improved functionality and the familiar Windows experience they know and love."
The Register dryly counters: "Users don't have much choice if they want to move to Windows 11 with Microsoft – support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025, and from that date the ten-year-old operating system will no longer receive security or feature updates." Mehdi describes this as "helping customers stay protected by moving to modern new PCs", but the marketing claims don't necessarily match the reality.
Microsoft has often suffered from a distortion of reality, but has still managed to bring the biggest crap to the people – at least in some cases. Well, there are a number of failed projects – and Windows 10X, which never reached the market, was used as a leftover ramp to carry over the botched GUI into Windows 11.
Just how enthusiastic Microsoft's fan community is about Windows 11 can be seen from the figures. A good half to two-thirds of all Windows clients are still running Windows 10, so there's no sign of "flying the flag for Windows 11".
On the contrary, statistics show that even users of Windows 11 are switching back to Windows 10. The Register quotes Canalys analyst Kieren Jessop as saying that it is not uncommon for companies to switch new Windows 11 devices to Windows 10 because it is more stable and compatible.
But The Register also notes that the hype Mehdi invokes around Copilot+PCs supposedly setting new standards for speed, intelligence and security doesn't match the reality of the user experience. Many Copilot+ PCs reportedly do not perform well in video games. When asked, Microsoft Copilot even admitted that Copilot+ PCs do not live up to the hype.
However, Microsoft is using a crowbar, painting its vision of Windows 11 PCs that nobody wants and ensuring that millions of computers that actually still work well are only good for electronic waste. And wants to be celebrated by claiming that it wants to become CO2-neutral and green.
At this point, I would like to refer readers to my blog post Windows 10: End of support in October 2025 – Million systems about to be replaced? There I show how you can easily run your Windows 10 systems safely for a few more years and then switch to Linux.
And I'm also going to get some popcorn, as I came across another nice piece of information on January 2, 2025 from my colleagues at The Register.
It's about the article Trump's tariff threats could bump PC prices by almost half, which deals with the question of what will happen if Trump raises his tariff barriers. The import tariffs proposed by the new Trump administration could increase PC prices in the US by 46 percent. This would simply stifle market growth in 2025, despite the impending Windows 11 upgrade compulsion.
This prediction comes from market observer Canalys, which expects total PC shipments in the US to increase by just 2 percent in both 2025 and 2026. In 2024, there was still growth of 6 percent in 2024 (just under 70 million devices). Looks like a double mismatch for Microsoft to me.
We'll likely go with 0patch for Windows 10 security updates after October until we purchase new hardware.