Microsoft Sold 40 Millions Windows 8 Licenses in Month - Exec
Microsoft Sold 40 Millions Windows 8 Licenses in Month - Exec.
Microsoft Corp has sold 40
million Windows - 8 licenses in
the month since the launch, according to one of the new co-heads of the Windows
unit, setting a faster pace than Windows 7 three years ago.
The sales number represents a
solid but unspectacular start for the touch-friendly operating system designed
to combat Apple Inc's and
Google Inc's domination
of mobile computing, which has shunted aside PCs in favor of iPads and
smartphones.
Tami Reller, finance and
marketing head of the Windows business, did not give a precise comparison, but
sales of 40 million licenses for Windows 8, launched on October 26, appear to
be ahead of Windows 7, which sold just over 60 million units in the first 10
weeks on sale at the end of 2009.
Reller did not break down the
Windows 8 license sales between relatively cheap upgrades and purchases of new
machines running the new software, but suggested much of the growth was coming
from upgrades.
"Windows 8 upgrade
momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7," said Reller, speaking at
an investor conference held by Credit Suisse.
Upgrading to Windows 8 costs $40, compared to $70 for the full software package
or hundreds of dollars for a new PC.
The latest figure does not
mean that 40 million users have adopted Windows 8. Many of the sales are to PC
manufacturers, who in turn sell a large number of machines to companies, very
few of which are using Windows 8 yet.
According to tech research
firm StatCounter, about 1 percent of the world's 1.5 billion or so personal
computers - making a total of around 15 million - are actually running Windows
8.
Reller did not disclose sales
of Microsoft's new Surface tablet, its first-ever own-brand PC, designed to
challenge the iPad head on.
The first Surface, based on a
chip designed by ARM Holdings Plc ,
does not run old versions of Microsoft programs. A slightly bigger version
based on an Intel Corp chip
that will run the full Windows 8 Pro operating system and be fully compatible
with the Office suite of applications will be available in January, Reller said.
The investor conference was
the first public appearance for Reller since she was named as one of two
executives to run the Windows unit after president Steven Sinofsky unexpectedly
left two weeks ago. Julie Larson-Green heads the engineering side of Windows.
Reller said the Windows unit
had survived Sinofsky's surprise departure.
"The team holistically is in great, great shape. And the
product is in great shape," she said, responding to a question from a
Credit Suisse analyst. "I think transitions are always somewhat of a
challenge, but I think that timing-wise it is a reasonable time, and the team
is busy."
Earlier in the day, Microsoft said it had sold more than 750,000
Xbox game consoles in the United States last week, including the day after
Thanksgiving, one of the country's biggest shopping days.
That is down from 960,000
sales in the same week a year ago, in line with reduced computer game spending
across the board this year, as gamers hold off on purchases in the tight
economy and move toward free online games.
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