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Reuters claims:

Windows XP currently supports around 95 percent of the world's ATMs.

Is that true?

In the same article, it is said:

The U.S. software company first warned that it was planning to end support for Windows XP in 2007, but only one-third of the world's 2.2 million ATMs which use the system will have been upgraded to a new platform, such as Windows 7 by the April deadline, according to NCR, one of the biggest ATM makers.

It find it hard to believe that over 28% (=33-5) of ATM worldwide can be upgraded in less than one month and a half. Hence I wonder whether 95 percent of the world's ATMs still use Windows XP currently.

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  • 5
    You have a report by a credible news agency citing credible sources, specifying their names or positions. Why are you doubtful of the claim?
    – SIMEL
    Mar 15, 2014 at 20:26
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    I'm not necessarily a respresentative sample, but everytime I've seen them crash, they've been running 2000.
    – Owen C. Jones
    Mar 17, 2014 at 16:37
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    @Alex there's nothing inherently wrong with using Windows on an ATM. Especially because it is likely Windows XP Embedded which is designed specifically for devices like ATMs.
    – MDMarra
    Mar 17, 2014 at 23:57
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    Note that ATMs will not use the "normal" version of XP which will be EOL an 2014-04-08, but XP Embedded, which has a later EOL.
    – Martin Schröder
    Mar 18, 2014 at 12:48
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    @Alex: what if I told you that US Navy ship(s?) equipped with nuclear missiles have at one point been under control of Windows NT. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CG-48)#Smart_ship_testbed
    – vartec
    Mar 18, 2014 at 13:40

1 Answer 1

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Unfortunately, I could not find any world-wide data. However, the reputable German IT news site Heise says they have a report of the German Credit Association dated November 2013, which "seems to imply that almost all ATMs in Germany run on Windows 2000 or Windows XP".

Germany might not be typical; it is a developed country, which could either mean that its infrastructure is better then average, or conversely, that the infrastructure is well-established and thus older than average. If, however, we assume it to be representative, we can say that an overwhelming majority of ATMs run Windows XP or older.

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  • I read in local newspaper that 95 % of ATMS in United States of America are running Windows Xp
    – samnaction
    Mar 18, 2014 at 12:01
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    @user3275057 Was Reuters their source? Plenty of articles has been published recently with Reuters as the 95% source.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Mar 18, 2014 at 15:22
  • I dont know from where they took it but its a local newspaper in India
    – samnaction
    Mar 18, 2014 at 16:41

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