Vista sales "rapid" at 140m copies
updated 10:05 am EDT, Thu May 8, 2008
Vista Sales at 140m
Microsoft chair Bill Gates today noted at a European news conference that sales of Windows Vista have reached 140 million copies worldwide. The update is the first since the company crossed the 100 million mark at the start of the new year, although Gates doesn't clarify when the company reached the newer threshold. This demonstrates that Vista continues to sell at a "very rapid" rate, according to the Microsoft co-founder.
If tracked between January and April, the number represents about 10 million copies of Vista sold per month in the first third of 2008 and signals a slight increase in the sales rate for the operating system, which averaged at just over 9 million copies sold per month in 2007. However, the sales rate is half that of the Windows update's initial results in the first two months of its launch, when it sold as many as 20 million copies per month to cater to early demand.
Most of Microsoft's Vista sales are commonly thought to stem from licenses for new computers as part of users' regular upgrade cycles rather than interruptions spurred by specific demand for the new OS. Last year, Vista was pre-installed on less than half of all new PCs despite being on sale for all but one month.
Gates' positive outlook for Vista comes as Dell and Lenovo have both said they would continue selling Windows XP past its June 30th sales cut-off date as a response to business customers, many of whom have demanded the six-year-old software remain in place to avoid compatibility problems with business software and while performance requirements remain high for the refreshed Windows platform. Microsoft has already pledged to continue supporting XP for very low-cost notebooks until 2010.
you run with that, Billy
05/08, 10:42am reply
I really hope he believes his own horseshit.
climacs
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Sep 2001
Flying off shelves...
05/08, 10:44am reply
Well, that's nice to know. I keep hearing companies asking for extensions of running Windows XP, so it's hard to tell that "lots" of companies are moving up to Vista. I guess as long as they're getting new computers, it's OK to upgrade to Vista. But if they're not ready to upgrade then they just stick with WinXP. I'm going to install WinXP SP3 in my VMs on my MacBook Pro 2.33 after I check install reviews. I don't want to mess anything up since everything is working fine now. I'd already tried Vista Ultimate and it worked the processors too hard and I got rid of it.
Constable Odo
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Joined: Aug 2007
accurate?
05/08, 10:48am reply
How accurate could those numbers be? "Sales" at 140 mil, but how many computers running it? Sometimes it is hard to buy a new computer without Vista on it, yet you return the the evil that you know and love (XP). This makes me wonder how many people bought computers that came with Vista, yet installed XP as soon as they got it.
Guess they could be counting copies of Vista sold separate from a computer, but I doubt it at those numbers.
rsande
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Joined: May 2004
re: accurate?
05/08, 10:56am reply
wonder if that counts licenses sold to everyone or actual copies sold? I'm sure Dell and such buys huge groups of licenses at a time, but they arent actually in use..
eldarkus
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Joined: Feb 2004
Nice but...
05/08, 11:01am reply
It's too bad it doesn't stream AAC. Tivoli makes good products. I have a Model One radio that sounds fantastic.
hayesk
Professional Poster
Joined: Sep 1999
This means nothing...
05/08, 11:05am reply
Basically these are OS copies with new Machines, if they had XP on them then it would be 140 Million copies of XP minus 20 million for those early adobters in the first couple months of Vista coming out. The only sale numbers I want to see are those packed boxed Vista copies sold with out computers. That will tell if its a success or not when compared to XP box numbers.
Athens
Addicted to MacNN
Joined: Jan 2003
this just in...
05/08, 11:10am reply
Of course sales are "rapid" Vista is the only updated OS for a PC.
Note: "Rapid" doesn't mean "great"...just "ok" because you are shoveling c*** down peoples throat.
manleycreative
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Joined: Sep 2005
I think he's mistaking
05/08, 11:15am reply
I think he's mistaking bootleg sales in China as actual sales. Even they don't REALLY want it.
jdonahoe
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Joined: Jul 2006
Choice
05/08, 11:36am reply
Is he really of the opinion that 140 million people have *chosen* to buy Vista?
rcopeh
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Joined: Apr 2008
140 million?
05/08, 12:04pm reply
What a steaming pile of OS that must be.
Monde
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