Bill Gates yesterday told the WinHEC audience that Microsoft had sold close to 40 million copies of Vista.
“The sales number, for the operating system’s first 100 days of broad availability, represents license sales into the channel. However, the number of Vista PCs sold is probably much less,” Joe Wilcox reports for Microsoft Watch.
“The 40 million number has a much more credible ring than Microsoft’s April proclamation of 20 million licenses sold in 30 days. The 20 million figure included coupons Microsoft offered for Vista PCs sold during the holidays,” Wilcox reports.
“The second 20 million is the first real indication of how well Windows Vista is selling. Because of the coupon program, the time period associated with the first 20 million license sales was longer than 30 days; more like four months. In addition, Microsoft offered two separate licenses—for Windows XP and Vista—for each PC sold during the coupon period,” Wilcox reports.
Wilcox reports, “Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD, said that the 40 million figure ‘certainly seems plausible.’ Doing some quick shipment calculations, based on one-third of year sales, he figured Vista sales to be in the ’35 to 37 million range with 3 to 5 million in the channel.'”
“”Sold’ does not equal ‘deployed,” said Al Gillen, IDC’s research vice president of system software. ‘If you went out and tried to find the portion of that 40 million that went into businesses, you will find a lot of the machines have been downgraded to Windows XP, which is perfectly legit,'” Wilcox reports.
“The sales figure is through last week, which means about 20 million Vista licenses sold in about two months—from March 1 to early May,” Wilcox reports.
Wilcox reports, “Analyst projections for the current quarter are encouraging, but the real crunch will come in June. If OEMs and retailers start heavy discounting or quarterly PC shipments come up short, there will be a sign of much unsold Vista inventory.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, mix up some communal reinforcement, a heaping helping of the bandwagon effect, and some nice warm groupthink and what do you get? Microsoft Windows’ market share.
Is Vista crap – Yes
Does its sales figure reflect that – Yes
Will the majority of the computing population still get Vista shoved down their throat in some point or another – Yes
Will Microsoft get even richer from this dastardly move – Yes
Does Microsoft still have the same reputation (good) that it had 7 years ago? – No
Honestly, the day Microsoft wont suck is the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
And trust me, that WILL happen in the future, considering Microsoft is snooping its head into every single tech area, even when they know they’re bound for failure.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
Considering they’ve invested in an enterprise headed & operated by Steve Ballmer…
Easy.You realize that accounting-wise it makes no fucking difference to the bottom line, right? They could be in a warehouse in Alaska… MS already has the money.
What if a given automaker decides to increase their volume by selling new vehicles directly to junk yards?
That shouldn’t make any difference either because the maker would still have the money, right?
If MS wants to claim x many Vista sales, good for them. Just tell us who’s buying Vista, and whether or not those copies are actually being used.
This whole business reminds me of the days when AOL mailed out all those goddamned signup CD’s.
Going by MS’s math, AOL could have claimed each install CD as a new user account, or at least some kind of market share. Never mind that most people just got sick of throwing the CD’s away…
Gods, you people are pathetic. You all need to get a life.
@ No_RDF
Got one, thanks. You?
so 5 million sold
15 million in the channel
and 20 million sitting in M$’s whorehouse
= B$
Maybe Gates means 40 million copies sold including 39.9 million pirated copies sold or downloaded?