MS Says Vista Selling At Twice XP's Pace

Several readers made us aware that Microsoft said today that it sold more than 20 million Windows Vista licenses in the first month after the OS's general debut on January 30. This compares to 17 million licenses of XP sold in the first two months after its release. (Just a coincidence the announcement came out a day after this community's speculation, surely.) Most of the coverage of this story, picked up from Reuters, looks like it follows an MS press release. The Associated Press dug deeper, noting that since XP's release the overall PC market has grown by almost a factor of 2, so it would be a surprise if Vista didn't do twice as well: "...51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year... 96 million consumers will buy a computer." Also, Microsoft's 20 million figure includes the backlog of upgrade coupons bundled with XP computers sold since last October.

Comments

Re:What can Vista do that my Linux box can't?

[craznar]

"Remind me again what Vista does that my Linux box can't?"

Well, I can't speak for Vista, but Windows XP runs on my box without me having to know how to use VI, GCC, Make, Yum, C, C++ and write down IRQs, ports, numbers from the inside of my computer first.

Having said that - and being able to do that, Linux does indeed have a place in my home/business :)

Linux will not be a desktop OS for the masses, until ... well ... never.

Waiting for the OSX release which will natively support Win32 ... then we are rockin'

Re:MS has to show good sales figures to shareholde

[Divebus]

Yes, that's exactly how it works. Fact is the eventual Microsoft sales are classically manufactured out of forced obsolescence, but those future sales need to be reported in this quarter, not next year, to make things SEEM better than they are to shareholders. I always say "never total the sum of your juvenile poultry until the usual period of incubation has elapsed". Lets wait until the paper vouchers are cashed in and the shelf-worn OEM software comes into the wild before declaring those sales.

There's very little new to offer in Vista over XP except a more colorful clown suit - well, maybe a few eye candy "features" and a clunky idea of how you want to see "your" media (now owned by Microsoft with their electronic proctoscope up your hard drive). However, Microsoft needs to create obsolescence to further their stale product because sales aren't being driven by compelling upgrades. Well, every manufacturer has to do that, except a 1998 Ford doesn't quit running [perhaps] because the 2007 models are out. Windows of that era or younger is about to artificially meet its maker.

Microsoft hasn't had an original idea in decades, so why would they expect a rapid adoption now? They don't, but they need to make it look that way. Apple could ship 20 million copies of Leopard to all the Apple stores, CDW, PC Connection, MacMall, MicroCenter and everyone else claiming 20 million sales in one day. Difference is they'd probably sell that many to end users lined up out the door in one day. Has anyone seen any Vista lines? The Apple lines have made the news every time so far (we'll see how good or bad that goes shortly).

This whole Vista thing has been a train wreck in slow motion starting years ago, like watching an instant replay you can see the entire house of cards collapse. Their own numbers indicate about zero growth in OS sales. There must be double the number of computers out there since XP was released and they're crowing about a barely above par increase in deployment in the same time period? Pleeeez.

While you're at it, quit counting gas pumps, cash registers, truck scales, dry cleaner retrieval systems, toll booth RFI readers and passenger car engine computers amongst PC sales and we'll see some really different deployment ratios of PC/Mac/Linux.

How many Black Russians was that anyway?