XP on 50% more PCs than Vista in 2007
updated 01:35 pm EST, Tue January 8, 2008
XP on More PCs than Vista
Microsoft's now six-year-old Windows XP came with many more computers in 2007 than its Vista replacement, according to Microsoft's own statistics at its CES keynote. Though outgoing company chief executive Bill Gates touted that Vista had crossed the 100 million-unit sales mark before the end of 2007, InformationWeek notes a Gartner assessment which claims that about 255.7 million PCs will have been sold over the course of the year, leaving Vista with just 39 percent of the new PC market despite going on sale early in the year, at the end of January. With most remaining systems shipping using a variant of Windows, the statistic points to almost 60 percent of all PCs shipping with the older XP variant -- or a more than 50 percent larger number than its newer counterpart, according to Electronista calculations.
The statistic also represents further evidence of a continued slowdown for the new Microsoft OS. The company's claim represents an average of 8.3 million copies per month sold in 2007, which is lower than the 9.3 million per month recorded during the summer quarter. However, 60 million of these sales have been attributed to the common early spike in demand in the first few months and 28 million in the summer. This leaves 12 million copies sold in the last three months of the year, or just 4 million per month despite the potential for increased holiday sales, Electronista finds.
The growth rate has actually slowed versus XP, which sold 89 million copies in its first year on store shelves despite an overall PC market half as large as in 2007.
Much of the downturn in results is widely credited to a hesitance by business and home buyers to either buy an upgrade copy of the OS or replace their PC with Vista as the only choice. Notably, PC makers such as Dell were pressured by demand as early as April to restore XP as an option for their computers by customers worried about compatibility or performance. Dell and several other larger system builders continue to offer XP as an option for some systems, particularly models for the more cautious business market.
Bill Gates and Metrics
01/08, 02:13pm reply
It is all about spin when you use metrics. I watched the Keynote and knew there was something wrong with that number because I know what the markets response has been. I mean when you sponsor the Olympics and they choose a pervious generation of your OS citing in stability fears, you have a problem. The number of units shipped verse the number of unit that came as a default. The number of people who bought it because it was better and the number of people who downgraded. Steve Jobs number fudges too, they all do. Some are just better at it. When Apple says that they have shipped 5 million I-Phones next week, there will clearly be a difference than the number they have activated. That is not a metric that would make stock-holders happy. But when The HD DVD camp says they have more HDDVD player than Blu-ray players and that they are winning, but fail to include the PS3 as Blu-Ray player because it is not a dedicated box, then we have a problem considering that some bought it as a player because it was the cheapest one they could get. Gaming was the bonus. I am sure that the Blu-Ray camp would do the same if they were excelling in set-top boxes but not beating the X-Box 360 if it had an out of the box HD DVD player instead of the add-on.
akirashimablue
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2008
Oversimplified numbers
01/08, 02:21pm reply
Those numbers don't include Vista upgrade sales. Given that some copies of Vista were bought boxed, that means that somewhere less than 39% of new PCs had Vista.
njfuzzy
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Joined: Apr 2001
nelson muntz sez
01/08, 02:40pm reply
ha, ha!
climacs
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Joined: Sep 2001
Electronista
01/08, 02:45pm reply
Why is this posted on Electronista? Isn't this mac news?
derbbre
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Joined: Oct 2000
Elelectronista (seconded)
01/08, 02:54pm reply
The stranger thing is that the Mac Pro announcement was on Electronista, rather than MacNN. I guess PC news is no more relevant to a "Gadget" site than a "Mac" site... I do wonder if they are trying to phase-out MacNN, though.
njfuzzy
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2001
Apple does not "Activate"
01/08, 03:04pm reply
akirashimablue....
You said that... "When Apple says that they have shipped 5 million I-Phones next week, there will clearly be a difference than the number they have activated."
That is not true....becuase Apple does not "activate" iPhone.... AT&T does. Some would argue that Apple does not care who buys an iPhone or if they even ever activate it. Apple gets $399.00 regardless.
It is true they get a kickback of AT&T revenue for each activated iPhone... but they still sell more iPhones than are activated.
I for one am sick of people trying to tie Apple's sales number on the iPhone to activations at AT&T. You will do better to measure Apple by looking at their stock price.
jhawk95
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Joined: Oct 2006
derbbre: on Esta posting
01/08, 06:17pm reply
It's Windows XP/Vista news -- Electronista is a general tech blog, and there's no mention of Apple in the story. I guess they think it's just relevant to Mac users (which it is, in a sense).
Commodus
Mac Elite
Joined: Feb 2002
What's with the black?
01/09, 08:48am reply
This way, there's a comeback when Mac people say they've copied the Macbook Pro.
"Nuh-uh! Just look at the stylish black, um, thingy part! Where's the place for all your beep boop lights on the Macbook?!!? Oh, that's right, you don't have any?!?! Hah! And your trackpad is centered, AHAHA! *Your* left hand will *never* lay across your trackpad while you're typing!! Hah!"
chulitomio
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Joined: May 2004