Microsoft sells 150m Windows 7 licenses

updated 09:50 pm EDT, Wed June 23, 2010

Company highlights enterprise adoption

Microsoft has reportedly sold 150 million licenses for the Windows 7 operating system, according to a Windows team blog. The company claims Windows 7 is the fastest-selling OS in Microsoft's history, while approximately 75 percent of enterprises are said to be actively deploying or evaluating it.

Along with the sales milestone, the company has also introduced several new beta versions of the Windows Live Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, and Sync. The latest betas focus on cloud-based services through improved integration with photo and video sharing sites, e-mail services, social networks, web-based productivity apps, and blogging utilities.

Sync allows users to synchronize files across multiple PCs. The latest version adds a remote desktop feature to remotely access a PC over the web.

Microsoft general manager Brian Hall recently claimed that the new Windows Essentials pack now makes "Windows better than photos than a Mac, hands down." Photo Gallery will allow users to make composite images, while batch edits and tighter Facebook integration are also new to the utility.

The betas should be available on Thursday, however the company has yet to provide a solid date for the final release.

By Electronista Staff

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industry, software, Microsoft, Windows 7

Arty50

Mac Elite

Joined: May 2000

06/23, 10:04pm | report spam | close reply

75%

"while approximately 75 percent of enterprises are said to be actively deploying or evaluating it."

This could mean 5% have deployed it and 70% are evaluating it. I heart marketing speak. :-/

qazwart

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2001

06/23, 10:23pm | report spam | close reply

comment title

> This could mean 5% have deployed it and 70% are evaluating it.

Nope. I think this is real. Windows XP is almost a decade old, and has some real problems with security. Companies want to move away from it, but hated Vista. Windows 7 works and companies are moving forward. This is especially true since Microsoft End of Life'd XP quite a while ago.

By the way, remember that every computer and almost all netbooks are sold with Windows 7 whether you like it or not. Also note that Microsoft gave away licenses to have schools and "students" upgrade to Windows 7. It shouldn't be any surprise that Windows 7 is a big seller. Microsoft had previously made similar claims with Vista just a few years ago.

Marook

Forum Regular

Joined: May 1999

06/24, 02:40am | report spam | close reply

Well..

As a Apple reselelr, we see a lot of WinXP people evaluating Win7, and then switch to Mac - maybe even before they have even played with Win7.

nat

Junior Member

Joined: Mar 2002

06/24, 06:28am | report spam | close reply

great news

now they can afford to keep the money losing bing, msn, zune, mslive, hotmail, etc. alive for another decade of huge losses. everybody wins. the free market at work.

Peter Bonte

Joined: Aug 2001

06/24, 06:54am | report spam | close reply

150m licenses

doesn't mean they are all used, corporations buy site licenses but don't consume all of them in short term. Dell and HP also could well have bought 50m licenses for future computer sales.

Worldwide PC sales for 8 months is about 250 million, so 150 million is 60% market share. More like 40% if i count in the licenses that aren't consumed yet and upgraded Vista machines.

Maybe windows 7 is selling faster than XP but back in 2001 computer sales were about half what they are now. Its like saying that windows 7 is faster on new hardware then XP on old hardware, wonder why MS stopped promoting this 'feature'.

lkrupp

Joined: May 2001

06/24, 07:46am | report spam | close reply

All I can say is...

I work for a Fortune 10 mega giant telecom (just a foot soldier). My work laptop is still running XP and there are not even hints of rumors of moving to Windows 7 anytime soon. My brand new leased laptop has the pretty Windows 7 sticker on it but it was imaged with XP and IE 6. Vista, of course, never happened at all. So call BS on Microsoft.

dynsight

Joined: May 2005

06/24, 08:15am | report spam | close reply

Windows - Got it right by the 7th Try

That should be their slogan.

I switched to OS X a little after SP1 for XP came out. Only use windows because I have to at work (although we are moving to MACS soon!), and to test websites on IE.

I have to say, I do like Windows 7. It is relatively quick, easy to use, much more stable than Vista... and it only took them 19 years to finally get a really good GUI OS.

Kudos to Microsoft.

Apple better watch out, in another 40 years, Microsoft might be a dominant force in the home entertainiment/music market.

JeffHarris

Joined: Oct 1999

06/24, 08:46am | report spam | close reply

How many pirated copies?

In much of the world NO ONE actually PAYS for this c***. It's all "home" assembled boxes and "free" or dirt cheap, cracked software. So, how will MS factor in THOSE numbers?

I got a chance to use W7 a few weeks ago. Still hideous to look at, awful and convoluted to use.
But, hey, if you don't know any better or know anything else...

Mr. Strat

Joined: Jan 2002

06/24, 10:29am | report spam | close reply

Well, it's better than Vista 1

It's better than the first version of Vista, but it's pretty faggy looking. I'll stick with OS X.

Geoduck

Joined: Jan 2010

06/24, 10:48am | report spam | close reply

MSBS

They said much the same thing about 2000, and XP. Ballmer made a fool of himself saying that Vista was the best selling OS in MS history. Now 7 is in the spotlight. MS has a decade or two history of dubious stats and inflated sales claims regarding their OS of the day. It's marketing BS.

Sorry but if Redmond says it's going to be sunny I take an Umbrella. I just do not believe anything they say.

SierraDragon

Joined: Mar 2004

06/24, 11:45am | report spam | close reply

Pent-up Demand

There are hundreds of millions of not-too-computer-literate folks who learned a few tasks on work PCs and have been adequately performing those tasks for years. Now whether at work or home Win is what they know, and they are disinclined to learn Mac or Linux just because we fanbois say they are better.

Vista failed; XP and the boxes XP is running on are wearing out and rapidly losing support from MS. Unlike Vista Win7 allegedly works so of course MS will sell a bazillion copies! However, MS is nevertheless dying. XP/Vista taught the corporate world that it can and should stick with an OS for a long time, so MS cannot count on repeatedly selling the same OS and Office bloatware in the future. MS never really did innovate and certainly is not doing so now, so the long-term for MS is DOWNHILL.

-1

06/24, 11:51am | report spam | close reply

There are hundreds of millions of not-too-computer-literate folks who learned a few tasks on work PCs and have been adequately performing those tasks for years. Now whether at work or home Win is what they know, and they are disinclined to learn Mac or Linux just because we fanbois say they are better.

Vista failed; XP and the boxes XP is running on are wearing out and rapidly losing support from MS. Unlike Vista Win7 allegedly works so of course MS will sell a bazillion copies!

However, MS is nevertheless dying. XP/Vista taught the corporate world that it can and probably should stick with an OS version for a long time, so MS can no longer count on repeatedly selling the same OS and Office bloatware just for the sake of the latest versions in the future. MS never really did innovate and certainly is not doing so now, so the long-term for MS is (slowly) DOWNHILL.

06/24, 11:53am | report spam | close reply

There are hundreds of millions of not-too-computer-literate folks who learned a few tasks on work PCs and have been adequately performing those tasks for years. Now whether at work or home Win is what they know, and they are disinclined to learn Mac or Linux just because we fanbois say they are better.

Vista failed; XP and the boxes XP is running on are wearing out and rapidly losing support from MS. Unlike Vista Win7 allegedly works so of course MS will sell a bazillion copies to the built-in already-know-Win user base!

However, MS is nevertheless dying. XP/Vista taught the corporate world that it can and probably should stick with an OS version for a long time, so MS can no longer count on repeatedly selling the same OS and Office bloatware just for the sake of the latest versions in the future. MS never really did innovate and certainly is not doing so now, so the long-term for MS is slowly DOWNHILL.

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Microsoft sells 150m Windows 7 licenses

updated 09:50 pm EDT, Wed June 23, 2010

Company highlights enterprise adoption

75%

comment title

Well..

Hmmm

great news

150m licenses

All I can say is...

Windows - Got it right by the 7th Try

How many pirated copies?

Well, it's better than Vista 1

MSBS

Pent-up Demand

Pent-up Demand

Pent-up Demand

Login Here

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Microsoft sells 150m Windows 7 licenses

updated 09:50 pm EDT, Wed June 23, 2010

Company highlights enterprise adoption

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75%

comment title

Well..

Hmmm

great news

150m licenses

All I can say is...

Windows - Got it right by the 7th Try

How many pirated copies?

Well, it's better than Vista 1

MSBS

Pent-up Demand

Pent-up Demand

Pent-up Demand

Login Here

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