There have been a few reports as of late claiming that Windows 8 has been underperforming sales-wise, but Microsoft’s latest announcement makes it clear that it is anything but. Tami Reller, one of the two women now leading the Windows group at Microsoft, took the stage at the Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference to reveal that OEMs, enterprises, and individuals have already purchased 40 million Windows 8 licenses since the OS launched one month ago. “The journey is just beginning,” said Reller, ”but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far.”
Sales of Windows 8 are just as strong as Windows 7 – if not better - and upgrades of the new OS have actually outpaced its predecessor, indicating that people are actually taking the time to upgrade their old PCs. Windows 7, by comparison, sold 60 million licenses during its first two months on the market. The Windows Store also surpassed 20,000 apps over Thanksgiving, doubling in just one month the number of apps that have been added to the Mac App Store over the last 23 months.
Those numbers seem to include OEMs, which means that they have nothing to do with how many actual consumers now have Windows 8. For all we know those numbers can include 39 million unsold computers sitting in storage somewhere.
You wouldn’t just be being a bit negative now would you Andreas? – I guess some of those would be OEMS but hardly likely to be 39 million of them…..
I’m guessing you don’t think much of Windows 8 then?
What I have a problem with here is the statistics.
Either way, Microsoft still sold 40 million copies of the OS. And it’s important to note that actual PC upgrades are also higher than usual.
If you look pc shipments of other quarters this year that’s not really an impressive number and I read on another site that it’s well below Microsoft internal expectations. Like Andreas mentioned, if a pc is sitting in a store or is being shipped to a store in the last 2 to 3 months, a Windows 8 license has been sold. I’m personally waiting (short of) for Windows 9 before building a custom pc. It seems the odd numbered big M desktop OS’s is where it’s at :p
I bought windows 8 to refresh my Vista laptop.
It fixed the performance issues, but it is a steep learning curve as I am having problems finding simple things, like “my computer” to reopen my flash drives once I closed the windows that autoplay started for me.
I think if you have windows 7, you should keep it for now.
Peace