“Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer used his Worldwide Partners Conference keynote on Monday to tout Windows 7’s success while trying to downplay the success of the Mac,” Electronista reports.
“The most recent OS had now reached 400 million licenses sold, up from 350 million in the winter and still growing faster than XP. He added that there were 350 million new PCs sold in the past year and used the large number, without comparing gains, to argue that Microsoft had no reason to worry about the Mac or Linux,” Electronista reports. “‘350 million, 350 million new PCs sold,’ Ballmer said. ‘That might compare with numbers from other guys that are in the 20 million range… now, 20 is too much, but 350 the last time I checked is a lot more than 20.'”
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Electronista reports, “While an important factor for context, the data also belies the rate of growth seen on each side. Apple stressed in its most recent results that the Mac had been outgrowing the overall computer market every quarter for the past five years and, this year, has been growing even as the field has been shrinking. Microsoft saw a four percent decline in Windows revenue at the start of the year, in part because of a 40 percent drop in netbook revenue as users stopped buying netbooks and bought iPads instead.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mr. Ballmer is doing a fabulous job and, as always, we urge Microsoft shareholders to remain comatose for as long as it takes.
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First quarter PC forecast: Microsoft’s Windows down 2%, Apple’s Mac+iPad up 250% – April 14, 2011
I love the total lack of class he exhibits when he says “20 million is too much”.
Reality: A very large number of those windows licenses are for PCs that don’t exist- corporate customers that have retired the actual machine but keep buying licenses, machines that will immediately be wiped and have Linux or XP put on them, etc.
Lets do some math. 400M times $100 (figure average windows license cost? Or are they really giving them away to get these volumes?) is $40B. With a %50 margin, that’s 20B profit, so by that accounting, MSFT should be worth $400B? More than Apple. Yet they aren’t, and that’s only a 20x P/E ratio! On just ONE line of business!
anyone know the adoption rate of existing users? Like what percentage of Windows Vista/XP users upgraded the OS vs the percentage of Mac users who do?
I think Apple only sold 1/10 of that and that includes all of Mac OS! LOL
Go Microsoft Go!
Apple probably sold only 40 million of Mac OS 10.1 to 10.6 …
Weak.
“I think Apple only sold 1/10 of that and that includes all of Mac OS!”
They’re also financially beating Microsoft.
That should tell you something very, very alarming about Microsoft’s future.
“Weak.”
Indeed.
As long as business’ insists on being stuck in old unproductive mud, and mired in compromised system repair Winduhz will survive.
Nope. However Ballmer presents his numbers, Microsoft’s visionary leader is absolutely correct.
Nothing to see here, folks. Just leave everything exactly as you found it and move along.
“Ballmer; for as long as it takes!” *clink*
“… but 350 the last time I checked is a lot more than 20.”
Yes it is, Stevie. But it isn’t really relevant, is it? Apple is worth how much more than Microsloth now?
So ball less. If windoze 7 is so great, why winblows 8?
The thing is, I don’t care how many people use Windows. What I do care is that the Mac is a very vibrant platform with plenty of developers and users. As long as I don’t have to use Windows, I really could care less if my neighbor next door uses it. The same goes for Android/iPhone or iPad/Name your brand.
Dear Steve Balmer,
May you burn in everlasting Hell, you ignorant buffoon!
Yours truly,
The Mac Community
But don’t get crispy until Microsloth has been buried please.
My first computer was an Apple IIe back in grade school. I have used everything from IBM PC’s to Gateway to NeXT to home built PC’s and then last fall I came “back to the Mac” when I bought a 27″ iMac. This spring I bought macbook pros my wife and I. My next computer at work will be an iMac and yes I will run windows in a virtual machine. Ballmee will count this as a sale, but the hardware partners will not benefit one bit from it because I will run windows better on my Mac than I could on any other store bought computer! I love my Mac and I’ve bought 3 of them in the past year and zero windows machines. Microsoft can’t see what’s coming!
@Now Now
It never fails. Some DOOOOOSH has to work an Obama comment in every frickin’ topic. Doesn’t matter the what the topic is about. He’s a gol dang mooslim and hates Amurika and is the antichrist and made my dogs hair fall out. He’s the cause of all their woes. I’m not a fan of his myself but I’m not wearing a tin foil hat like these people. Get a life and stick to the topic.
What kind of business is this monkey running, where he’s worried about 20 mill sales from his ‘competitors’, when he’s doing 350 mill?
😉
(The problem is not only that his business only survives when there’s no ‘competition’ around, but that he does not know how to correctly belittle the ‘competition’ without pointing out his own company’s faults.)
Just as I was beginning to read this, iTunes selected Star Wars Darth Vader theme. Ahh.. how appropriate. Apple is to Microsoft as BMW is to GM.
Oh, and as always and please go and see Ballmer opening the Microsoft Store in Bellevue — offering high fives to the thousands of tween girls who camped out for free concert tickets — with no idea what a Windows Store, Microsoft, or especially a 55 year old bald man is doing high fiving them..
Ballmer seems to ignore (or maybe not even realize) that iPads are displacing Windows licenses (in netbooks) by the millions. And that’s only after ONE year. Current Windows users are buying iPads by the millions. Combine that with Apple’s steadily growing Mac sales (mostly from recent Windows switchers), and Microsoft is headed for a “great reckoning” in a few years.
How many millions of the 350 million licenses sold are now installed on the Boot Camp partitions of Macs, so that an occasional game can be played before it’s back to OSX?
As the departing masses of Nokia staff have been shouting the future is all about building the ecosystem. That’s where the profit will be. I can’t see how Microsoft can get this so right with the XBox yet so wrong with the PC side of things.
Ironic. For years I’ve been hearing PC partisans refer to Macs as “toys” yet Microsoft’s only recent hit has been the XBox, a toy.
If people weren’t forced to use PC’s at work, suffering like laborers in a Concentration Camp, they wouldn’t have such a big margin. Freedom of choice is needed, and you’d see that gap fly shut. Everyone with a Mac at home knows they could be at least twice as productive using a Mac like they do at home. I hear that complaint all the time. Business needs to wake up and make more profit from faster more efficient working tools.
The comment Ballmer was 350 million is a lot more than 20 million. It wasn’t about trends, iPad sales etc. it is Windows 7 sales vs. OS X, like it or not, the comment is true.
If we were talking income, I’m going to drop a zero so most of us can relate. $350,000 vs. $20,000. Not even in the same league. Keep in mind this is about market share, not $.
like it or not there’s a pantload more Windows licenses, and hence machines, out there than macs. Doesn’t affect my life at all. i’ll just stay with my macs and be obliviously happy without the knowledge of the windows world. Let him yak. Don’t give him the time of day.
OK! mac fanboys! By any count, assuming both sides are telling the truth. In a recent artcile, apple said it already sold over 54 million macs or OS X. Microsoft on the other hand, sold 400 million windows 7. I may “not-be-cool-enough” to be a mac, I don’t have a lot of money, like the rest of us. Why will I spend $1199 on a mac-book-pro, when I could spend half of that for an equivalent dell, hp, acer or asus. I know, MACS are better, thats why they sold a whopping 54 million. MACS are super-kicking ass! Windows have been dismal, thats why they only sold 400 million. I’m so confused with these numbers, please help
You’re right. You are not cool enough to be a mac.
Why do i see in my mind that ROTC kid at the end of Animal House saying “all is well. remain calm” as chaos and calamity surround him.
Microsoft Windows: Providing a petrie dish for computer viruses since 1985!
And Windows 7 alone means at lest 400m sales leads for Norton, Kaspersky, McAfee, and myriad other security software makers
In overall electronic device use, I would include iPods and iPhones, so Apple has a bigger share than these given estimates if you add in the time spent using any given gizmo. People who prefer to listen to an iPod or use an iPhone are taking away time that they would spend on a PC, Mac or Windows..