Filed under: Business, OS Updates, Microsoft
Vista is rolling in the cash
Skeptics took a guess that Microsoft wouldn't sell many Vista versions, but it looks like that guess has been squashed.Microsoft sold 20 million boxes of Vista in the first month it was out. Compare that to 17 million copies of XP over the first two months it was available. Its quite a stretch given the few issues that usually pop up with any new operating system, many people usually tend to wait until things smooth over before purchasing.
Microsoft said that it did expect there would be a rush when it first came out, and bet on the fact that it would be their fastest selling operating system ever.
No word yet on how many of the copies sold were from manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Toshiba, versus how many boxed copies were bought off store shelves.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
chris said 9:28AM on 3-28-2007
The stretch comes in with it being on most new Dell, Compaq, YouNameIt boxes. I know personally that Dell is pushing hard for people to have it on their systems and that's it's more expensive NOT to have Vista. They also get incentive from Microsoft, monetarily, to do so.
Reply
Eric said 10:14AM on 3-28-2007
Not surprising, after all people did wait in line at midnight for this.
Reply
Pepe Gonzalez said 10:31AM on 3-28-2007
Now you have to consider that twice as many computers were sold now than in 2002. Relevant information from an AP article on Yahoo:
"But given that the personal computer market has nearly doubled since XP launched, Vista sales "probably should be more," said Michael Silver, vice president of research at Gartner, a technology research group.
The analyst said 51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year, the research group predicts 96 million consumers will buy a computer.
Starting in late October, PC makers included coupons for free or low-cost Vista upgrades that could be used once the software became available at the end of January. Microsoft's February sales total includes those promised upgrades, in addition to licenses ordered by PC makers to install on new computers, shrink-wrapped copies sold in retail stores and downloads from the Windows Marketplace Web store.
Silver estimates PC makers sold between 12 million and 15 million PCs with Windows XP Home Edition over the holidays — a significant chunk of the 20 million total, depending on how many included Vista coupons."
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070326/ap_on_hi_te/microsoft_vista_sales
Reply
Jonathan Harford said 10:53AM on 3-28-2007
“No word yet on how many of the copies sold were from manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Toshiba, versus how many boxed copies were bought off store shelves.”
Actually, you specified 20 million boxes in the second paragraph.
Sorry to be a pedantic asshole, but why'd you say boxes the first time anyway?
Reply
Dave Chartier said 12:44PM on 3-28-2007
I would wager the greater majority of that number is simply manufacturer sales. Most people, besides the select few enthusiasts who *aren't* playing the cautious waiting game, don't seem to be that interested yet.
Reply
Jay Hash said 4:40PM on 3-28-2007
It might've also been the fact that when XP went on sale folks were already dubious due to being burnt by previous OS'es like ME and 2000, and they were in high hopes this time that if Vista had all the functionality of XP, that Microsoft had learned from their mistakes and released a good OS with a prettier GUI. Oh, how wrong they were...But I think that may be what explains the numbers.
Reply