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Windows Vista Debuts with Strong Global Sales | |
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| Time: 12:21 EST/17:21 GMT | News Source: Microsoft Press Release | Posted By: Jonathan Tigner | ||
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Initial sales figures from Microsoft show its new operating system Windows Vista made a splash in its debut. In the first month of Windows Vista’s general availability, sales exceeded 20 million licenses, more than doubling the initial pace of sales for its predecessor, Windows XP. These initial figures reflect the broad interest in the security and usability enhancements in Windows Vista. “We are encouraged to see such a positive consumer response to Windows Vista right out of the gate,” said Bill Veghte, corporate vice president of the Windows Business Group at Microsoft. “While it’s very early in the product lifecycle, we are setting a foundation for Windows Vista to become the fastest-adopted version of Windows ever. Working with our partners, we are helping our customers leverage new tools and programs to accelerate the transition and provide a great user experience.” Windows Vista license sales after one month of availability have already exceeded the total of Windows XP license sales in the earlier product’s first two months of availability. In January 2002, the company announced sales of Windows XP licenses had exceeded 17 million after two months on the market. The more than 20 million copies shipped represent Windows Vista licenses sold to PC manufacturers, copies of upgrades and the full packaged product sold to retailers and upgrades ordered through the Windows Vista Express Upgrade program from January 30 to February 28. | ||
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| #1 By 32132 (142.32.208.231) at 3/26/2007 12:56:41 PM |
| Wow! |
| #2 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 3/26/2007 1:30:46 PM |
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"More than doubling" the uptake from 9x to XP! Very significant.
While a drop in the bucket, our sales of Vista have been extremely high - people love it. I delivered two custom systems yesterday - both Ultimate - quoting the customer: "we are digging it" and another, "I am certainly impressed and <name of child removed> is all over it!" One Doc, on a new Toshiba R400 - "Wow, man that is fast" It seems many pundist are saying one thing [Vista bad, not liked, not embraced] and then the truth, [sales figures, and customer demand and reactions - however limited our personal observations may be]. As to Vista not this, or not that <working> rubbish! We've been running it since November and I have just not seen that - no matter what I run it on, or how I've had to manage it. I even lost a mainboard in a system and had to replace it and the CPU. Three minutes on the phone and it was reactivated by Microsoft. The short story here is that the driver situation for Vista has been good and far better than 9x to 2K, or XP was and again, on many systems that are quite old. I've recently heard some tech pundits assert that Vista is the lay person's choice where OSX is the choice of professionals and tech enthusiasts... nonsense.... Vista fills both/all roles well and equally good for lay users and people who want to tweak, or modify the OS and their hardware all day. There's just so much garbage being said out there - I am glad to see solid sales figures support what we ourselves are seeing in our own small part of the market. |
| #3 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 3/26/2007 4:00:46 PM |
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"More than doubling"
Interesting statement but... In 2001 the total number of PCs shipped was 136 millions, in 2006 227 millions. I do not know if this parameter was accounted for; if yes, being a MS stockholder I am happy, if not, for the same reason stated above, I am sad because the number to match XP sales should have be 28 millions not 20. Besides I have Vista running in all our systems and I am quite satisfied with it; there issues? Surely there are; are they all drivers related? Mostly yes but not all of them although with SP1 just few months away I am not concern at all. This post was edited by Fritzly on Monday, March 26, 2007 at 16:01. |
| #4 By 32132 (142.32.208.231) at 3/26/2007 5:04:20 PM |
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#3 XP sold 17 million in 2 months.
Vista sold 20 million in 1 month. |
| #5 By 1896 (68.153.171.248) at 3/27/2007 7:36:37 AM |
| #4) I miss the point of your statement: I am very well aware that the sales for XP were calculated on a two months period and the ones for Vista on a month period only. That is the reason for the "More than doubling" claim. My question was about what parameters were considered. |
| #6 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 7:49:39 AM |
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It's more MS spin. Their sales doubled because the sale of new PCs doubled in the same timeframe:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070326-vistas-twofold-sales-boost-microsoft-should-thank-pc-market-growth.html |
| #7 By 13030 (198.22.121.110) at 3/27/2007 9:27:24 AM |
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It seems that a number of factors are at play here, so this is not an apples to apples (har har) comparison.
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/stacking_vista_licenses_too_high.html It is important to realize that this number is "sales in" to the pipe--primarily manufacturers replacing depleted XP stock with Vista stock. I suspect that the number of folks (certainly of the zealot persuasion) that upgraded immediately is actually a lower percentage than the number of folks that upgraded immediately when XP was released. I just can't see a compelling reason to upgrade hardware and run Vista at this time. |
| #8 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 9:39:44 AM |
| #7: So it's a case of distortion on top of deception? I thought so. With MS, you always have to read the fine print and in between the lines as there is always a game being played or a string being pulled. |
| #9 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 3/27/2007 10:10:49 AM |
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#8 What?
There is a market. There is market potential. There is measured sales within that market. Microsoft has sold more than 20 million copies of Windows Vista since its public release. Regardless of all the of the reasons why, sales numbers of Vista are more than double those recorded for Windows XP under similar circumstances - e.g., new version, newly released, and sales period. No measure of distortion - yours, or Microsoft's, changes those facts, or reduces the revenue actualized. It's business and business is good for Microsoft and its partners using their software opposite the market. Objective assessments, given the numbers, must conclude that Windows Vista is selling at least as well and somewhat better as a percentage of total systems in the market, as Windows XP did. Vista is certainly not underperforming. People who use it, like it and they like it better than XP, or any other OS [based upon what I see in my own customers]. |
| #10 By 32132 (64.180.219.241) at 3/27/2007 10:16:06 AM |
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I think we can pretty much ignore the Microsoft watch article based on this whopper: "Since the beginning of the year, Baker estimated only 3 million PCs have been sold in the United States."
In Q1 2006, US PC sales were 15,444 for the quarter. Or about 5 million per month. Therefore, even pretending there was not Vista surge, there would have been 10 million PC's sold in Jan/Feb. However, there was a Vista surge: "PC unit sales soared 173 percent at U.S. retail stores during the week ended February 3, compared with PC sales in the previous week, according to the report. Current Analysis also noted that during Vista's debut week PC unit sales rose 67 percent compared with the same period a year ago." Joe Wilcox is just continuing his Microsoft hatred spree. |
| #11 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 10:18:09 AM |
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#9: Sorry, I don't give MS a pass as easily as you when they're trying to pull a fast one. Nobody is buying Vista and MS is desperately trying to skew whatever numbers they can find to try and show that Vista is a big-seller when it isn't. And they are being deliberately deceptive. In the first month, they mopved 20 million licenses, except they're counting the vounchers from back in October. That sounds like 4 months to me, not one. And they're counting license shipments to OEMs, which are not sales to users. MS may as well have sold the 20 million Vista licenses to itself so it could claim the sales figure.
"Objective assessments, given the numbers, must conclude that Windows Vista is selling at least as well and somewhat better as a percentage of total systems in the market, as Windows XP did. Vista is certainly not underperforming." Do you have any actual data to back up this sweeping claim? "People who use it, like it and they like it better than XP, or any other OS [based upon what I see in my own customers]" Your own customers? Which ones, the ones that think Vista is just swell after an hour or two using it? |
| #12 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 10:22:13 AM |
| #10: I think you can pretty much ignore the Microsoft watch article based on the fact that it doesn't say what you want it to say. |
| #13 By 32132 (64.180.219.241) at 3/27/2007 10:49:26 AM |
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#12 coffee girl ... easily confused by facts, prefers lies if they reinforce his bitter, irrational hatred of Microsoft.
How you can take seriously any article that claims only 3 million PC's were sold in Jan/Feb? To be so deliberately misleading is shameful. |
| #14 By 47914 (24.225.231.107) at 3/27/2007 11:50:27 AM |
| Just curious as to how desktop linux is doing??? <sarcasm>I hear consumers are calling HP, Dell, etc, demanding to replace Vista on their new PC's with Linux because they are not happy with Vista</sarcasm> |
| #15 By 2960 (24.254.95.224) at 3/27/2007 12:00:54 PM |
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I like Vista, I just wish I hadn't of bought the "Sucker Edition" (Ultimate).
I should have just gone with an OEM copy of Premium for 1/3 the price. Live and learn... TL |
| #16 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 12:16:04 PM |
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Here is a little business 101: Lets pretend that I am a supplier, and you are a sales channel / OEM distributer. If I come out with a new product, and I sell you 100,000 units of said product to sell to the public, and then you as a distributer sell exactly 5 units to the public, then I can claim to have sold 100,000 units. The fact that you still have 999,995 units still in stock is your problem, not mine.
Therefore, the 20M units sold by MS may be technically correct, without actually giving any real measure of how many end users actually bought it. Sales channel stuffing is a time homoured tradition, even if it is a bit sleazy and underhanded. As is selling to your own subsidiaries. There are lots of other tactics as well, which, while being disingenious and misleading, are not actually illegal. So, I can believe that they sold 20M units into the channels during that period. I can also believe that many of them are still in the hands of those same channels, such as Dell, HP, and a host of other channel partners. How many sold by the channel would be a more useful and interesting number. |
| #17 By 32132 (142.32.208.231) at 3/27/2007 12:28:41 PM |
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#16 You can believe what you want -- you always err on the side of hating Microsoft. I prefer to look at public webstats to get an idea of whats going on.
Take for example Distrowatch. http://distrowatch.com/awstats/awstats.DistroWatch.com.osdetail.html 3.1% of visitors are now using Vista. Windows users total is about 60%. Thats means about 5% of Windows users are now using Vista (on that site). WOW!!! Thats huge in just 2 months. "I can also believe that many of them are still in the hands of those same channels, such as Dell, HP, and a host of other channel partners. How many sold by the channel would be a more useful and interesting number. " I believe OEM's pay Microsoft after they sell a copy to a consumer. Or just before its loaded on a PC. Dell operates on the JIT system. They don't buy 6 months worth of Vista ahead of time, just like they don't buy 6 months of hardware ahead of time. This post was edited by NotParker on Tuesday, March 27, 2007 at 12:32. |
| #18 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 3/27/2007 12:37:20 PM |
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#11, The customers that moved to Windows Vista began to do so after two key influences contributed to their systems: 1) Top-Down use, where principals began to use it at home from Jan 30 [night - when we deployed our first WMC centric systems finalized on the 29th] and 2) Professionals in three verticals that upgraded to Office 2007 - where O2K7 created a lot of interest in what Microsoft had done in the OS - their logic being, "If Office 2007 is this much better and easier to use, then how much better is Windows Vista?" That drove initial purchases and their exploration of Vista - some running really old practice management SW, too... After a week, these principals ordered upgrades to Vista and new machines as well.
Older machines, were fitted with a RAM upgrade and systems were cleaned and upgraded to Windows Vista Business and Ultimate Edtions - where Ultimate was favored by many laptop users who shuttle between office and home. This pattern has been reflected across our base since Vsita was launched. #16, Good analysis! However, one does need to look at this in isolation in one sense - as you point out, the sales Microsoft recorded are accurate. In another sense, as NotParker accurately writes, unit PC volume sales were also up by 67% and 173% [depending upon the channel]. This suggests that retailers and OEMs also saw increased sales - likely tracking with their ordering strategies - e.g., sales velocity and sales volumes. Simple math.... MS won't sell as it has if OEMs like my own, are not ordering PC's with Vista - clearly, people are. Finally, if people did not like Vista, I'd hear about it and loudly. I am not hearing that customers do not like it - I am hearing that they love it. I am hearing that they not only love how it looks, but how it "feels" [smooth]. I am also hearing a lot of about how they like its search and the Sidebar - weather, time, and stock tracking - they just dig how handly that is for them. From what I hear from our base, it is all the little things users love about Vista - the new Explorer crumb trails for one and the snipping tool to take screen shots, etc... Latch, I am curious - we know what you do not like and sort of know why... but what do you like tech wise? What do you recommend we evaluate to help one see your side of things better? Also, how can you not like "people" you don't know? I mean, one could not well come to know another person from what they read hear - posts are generally very short [yeah, I know you think mine are long, but I don't - being used to long texts and thick books, etc...]. |
| #19 By 23275 (24.179.4.158) at 3/27/2007 12:43:08 PM |
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#17, quite correct - supply chains are so dynamic and efficient, that order processing is done according to velocity into volume sales - they are tight as a tick and managed moment by moment and orders are only placed when sales are closed - same is true of all component parts.
Holding inventory is very expensive in so many ways - there is its cost, shrink, tax, storage costs, environmental costs, etc... any narrow view of it is insufficient and any mistake in managing the supply chain can kill a company and quick. I have to manage and monitor this each day in my own company and it is a very big deal. I mean, look at RAM and CPU's alone... they move in price all the time - normally, downward. One could kill a company very quickly, if the chain did not reflect the market. |
| #20 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 1:00:07 PM |
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#18: I'm still waiting for your data backing up your claims about Vista...
So now you're the official barometer of Vista, are you? Nobody is personally complaining to you so that makes it a success... your logic escapes me unless you're responsible for accounts totalling millions of users. btw your users could benefit from the news that these things they supposedly like about Vista have been available for years for all other flavours of Windows as 3rd-party shareware & freeware. What do I like, tech-wise? That's not really relevant. There is nothing for you to evaluate to see my side of things, since my side is more political & philosophical than technical. Like Parkkker, I've never, ever heard you make even the slightest critical comment about MS. If you can't see their behaviour for what it is and how deleterious it is to the market, I'm not going to convince you. "Also, how can you not like "people" you don't know?" By their actions of course, which is a component of reputation. Or am I misunderstanding you? |
| #21 By 37047 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 1:13:03 PM |
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#17: If you are correct, then that means that Microsoft could give lketchum 20,000,000 units of Vista, charge them as being sold, but he would only have to pay for ones he sells, when he sells them. Thus, carrying an inventory would not be a big deal, since it would merely be a boxes of OEM stickers and a few DVD masters. Especially for OEM suppliers who do not actually ship a physical OEM version of Windows, but rather a "recovery disk" and a sticker with your license number on it. Thus, you invalidate argument #19. So I guess one or both of you is wrong.
For the record: I work for a company that creates software for Windows, is a Gold Certified Partner, and I use Windows XP at home. I think XP is a decent OS. I have problems with Vista from a DRM perspective. I am sure there are lots of things that are good about Vista, but I have a problem with DRM in the OS, forced on me by the RIAA / MPAA by way of Redmond. I also have a problem with how Microsoft usually does business. Thus, many of my problems with Microsoft are aimed more at the executive level than at the guys in development. They make some decent products, when they are allowed to. Management is one of Microsoft's biggest problems. I have heard a lot of complaints about the number of levels of management, and the difficulties in getting things done there. They were a hugely successful company that became a victim of their own success. Now, the mantra at Microsoft seems to be more about improving the bottom line than leading the industry forward. And that is a shame, because there was a time when they were good at that sort of thing. I'll stop here, before Latch starts to accuse me of being long winded too. :-) |
| #22 By 28801 (68.81.50.122) at 3/27/2007 1:54:47 PM |
| Folks, there is one barometer that doesn't lie: the store shelves! I was astonished to see my local Best Buy with Vista shelves two thirds empty. And I was floored when I saw the Office 2007 shelves nearly barren. Clearly someone is buying these products. No matter what Latch or Sentinel claim, MS is moving product!!! |
| #23 By 7754 (216.160.8.41) at 3/27/2007 2:20:04 PM |
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Latch, ch: Their sales doubled because the sale of new PCs doubled in the same timeframe
So what? That is how most people buy Windows. Does that somehow lessen the fact that sales have more than doubled? Wasn't the same also true for XP? Is the OEM/channel situation the same as it was with XP? Yes, of course it was. Oh, but it's all "M$ deception." Right. The same exact things are said EVERY Windows release--no need to upgrade, there's nothing new, it's a service pack on the previous release, no one is upgrading, businesses have no upgrade plans (ever), yada yada yada. It gets really, really, really old. Yeah, I'll be sticking with ME... none of this silly XP stuff, thanks. It's just ME with new UI. Ridiculous. |
| #24 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 2:22:57 PM |
| #23: I come for the flame wars, but I stay for the comedy. |
| #25 By 15406 (216.191.227.68) at 3/27/2007 2:31:20 PM |
| #24: It matters because MS is trying to spur sales of Vista by deceiving people into thinking that everyone else is buying it, so they should too. Except that nobody is buying it. XP flew off the shelves because people wanted what it had to offer over Windows 2000. Most are happy with XP and have heard enough Vista horror stories to make them stay with XP. MS knows its worst upgrade enemy is itself, so it's trying to create fake buzz with these press releases touting how Vista is selling faster than XP when it's all nonsense. |
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