Print - Microsoft Announces Record Vista Sales

Microsoft announced yesterday that it sold more than 20 million licenses for Windows Vista in its first 30 days of general availability. That places Vista sales at more than double those of its predecessor, Windows XP, in the same time frame.

"We are encouraged to see such a positive consumer response to Windows Vista right out of the gate," says Microsoft Corporate Vice President Bill Veghte. "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."

According to Microsoft, the 20 million Vista copies sold include licenses sold to PC makers, copies of retail full and upgrade versions sold to retailers, and upgrades ordered through the Vista Express Upgrade program between January 30 and February 28. By comparison, Microsoft sold less than half that number of XP licenses in its first 30 days of availability and announced in January 2002 that it had sold 17 million copies of XP in its first 60 days of availability.

Before Microsoft's announcements, various news stories had erroneously claimed that Vista sales were lagging behind those of XP. What's really happening is that most customers have opted to purchase new PCs with Vista preinstalled rather than upgrade their existing customers. This situation has benefited the entire PC industry, of course. Dell says its customers have overwhelmingly chosen premium Vista versions over lower-end versions, purchasing, in turn, more expensive PCs and components.

:) i guess that puts to rest your theory of "security through obscurity" eh, MacCanuck? XP

"most customers have opted to purchase new PCs with Vista preinstalled rather than upgrade their existing ***customers***." to clarify, i think that last word is supposed to be "computers". XP

i wonder if the lack of some watched-up, has-been musician's song being made a theme-track is to thank for all of this? ;) XP

Upgrading customers somehow goes against the basic tenets of intelligent design.

"Upgrading customers somehow goes against the basic tenets of intelligent design." i dunno about that....upgrading customers to spend more money without offering anything more compelling, and thus not doing any more work, seems to be something that the "other side of the fence" seems to be good at doing. ;) XP

"What's really happening is that most customers have opted to purchase new PCs with Vista preinstalled rather than upgrade their existing customers" So if I buy a Vista upgrade, I get upgraded as well? Cool! Maybe with the better memory management, I won't be so forgetful... About the sales figures, I expected as much. Once people actually use Vista, especially on a new PC, they will see how great it is. I upgraded my parent's and younger sibling's computer to Vista, and my mom loves some of the new features (like parental controls). I imagine it is similar for those millions of people. I can see malware authors quaking in their shoes... There will be much, much less opportunities to hijack a Vista computer than an XP one.

"seems to be....seems to be...." hmm....that didn't come out right....i guess it just assumes a big assumption. ;) XP

"That places Vista sales at over double those of its predecessor, Windows XP" PR Speak!! Worldwide PC sales 2001 - 135 million Worldwide PC sales 2006 - 239 million Worldwide PC sales 2007 - 263 million (estimated) Source: Gartner Double the market. Double the sales.

SPiotr - you missing something: "in the same time frame." see: "in its first 30 days of general availability." XP

These numbers are purposely misleading. Microsoft is citing sales of licenses to retailers and manufacturers, not actual consumer purchases. They did the same thing with Windows XP. Vista's sales have been a disaster and were reported to be 60% less than that of XP. It's hilarious watching the Microsoft fanboys going "wow!" over OEM license purchases. Meanwhile, absolutely nobody is using the unfinished piece of crap that is Vista--so unfinished that Service Pack 1 is already coming later this year! And then Leopard's coming out next month to totally leapfrog Vista. Ouch.

we still have 85% of our initial order still on shelves, and in warehouses. Laptop sells are thru the roof, but box retail is abysmal

Uhh yah, good luck with that... Millions of consumer and enterprises have been holding off for years waiting for Vista... This is nothing but good news for the industry (not the electronics industry -> crApple)...

@Waethorn - No I am not. The market for PCs is likely to be nearly double the size, this year, as it was back in 2001 (when XP was launched). So in any similar "time frame' It's STILL going to be .... nearly double the size. So it's really no surprise that Vista is 'selling' more than XP.

"What's really happening is that most customers have opted to purchase new PCs with Vista preinstalled rather than upgrade their existing customers." No, they haven't. We haven't seen any sales figures showing that--Microsoft is just touting license sales to manufacturers, the same thing they did when XP came out while refusing to reveal actual sales to consumers. There is ZERO consumer excitement about Vista. Everyone knows it's a clone of an old version of Mac OS X from several years ago. Vista is a complete flop. Nobody is using that bloated, buggy OS that still relies on the ancient Win32 API which dates back to the 1980s. Watching Microsoft fanboys defend the Longhorn debacle this late in the game is hysterical. Have fun editing your registries and clicking UAC prompts!

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2107715,00.asp "These sales figures were compiled by Microsoft based on sales reports from its retail and PC manufacturers over the period, as well as from the Express Upgrade program." "And then Leopard's coming out next month to totally leapfrog Vista. Ouch." What do you think this is? Pokemon? Seriously, who talks like this? :-)

The bit Paul forgot to mention: "Given that the PC market has almost doubled since XP launched, Vista sales "probably should be more," said Michael Silver, vice president of research at Gartner, a technology research group. Silver said 51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year, the research group predicts 96 million consumers will buy a computer. The analyst also noted that the number of holiday-season upgrades, which actually represents a backlog, rather than new sales since Vista's end-of-January launch, could take some wind out of Microsoft's sails. Silver estimates PC makers sold between 12 million and 15 million PCs with Windows XP Home Edition over the holidays. While Microsoft wouldn't say how many Vista upgrades were ordered in that time frame, Dell Inc. spokesman Bob Kaufman said about two-thirds of its holiday PC shoppers registered for the upgrade. "That would say that those (Vista sales) numbers aren't all that great if that includes all that backlog," said Silver. Shipments of Vista to U.S. retailers in February lagged XP's first-month shipments by about 56 percent, according to the NPD Group, which tracks retail software sales."

looks like "the b1tch is back!". *sniff*, i almost missed cutting his rants apart. ....then again, maybe not. "These numbers are purposely misleading. Microsoft is citing sales of licenses to retailers and manufacturers, not actual consumer purchases. They did the same thing with Windows XP." and....??? do you think that builders and retailers are preordering this to keep in stock? you're completely naive if you believe that. "we still have 85% of our initial order still on shelves, and in warehouses." and yet manufacturers are selling computers through the roof. i'm sure that 85% of HP's computers are still in their warehouse eh? nice try. "box retail is abysmal" you should really read the above article - the numbers INCLUDE Retail Upgrade and Full versions. i wouldn't argue that Microsoft doesn't sell the majority of sales through retail. of course, neither would Microsoft. "And then Leopard's coming out next month to totally leapfrog Vista." isn't that what you said last month?....and i'm sure you'll be saying it next month. i'm sure the thought on every Mac fans' mind is: "hello? Steve?....ok the new version of Windows is out now and we're frightened...." of course, you could say that about anything that Apple makes. "Service Pack 1 is already coming later this year!" ....and Windows will get a kernel update. Windows users don't have to pay for this Service Pack either, unlike every Mac user that's paying for updates ever year and a half. meanwhile OSX is going into it's 5th revision with features that Windows NT had almost 10 years ago, with security issues that Apple is completely ignoring. Apple: "we treat security like a Fisher Price toy, much like our computers" "Leopard's coming out next month to totally leapfrog Vista" i've never seen a leopard play leapfrog. keep eating the fruit in the AppleField®. XP

@bonch "These numbers are purposely misleading. Microsoft is citing sales of licenses to retailers and manufacturers, not actual consumer purchases. They did the same thing with Windows XP. Vista's sales have been a disaster and were reported to be 60% less than that of XP." I should know better, but....... You've contradicted yourself in 2 paragraphs. You said that Vista's numbers were calculated the same way XP's were. According to those numbers, Vista is double XP. And then you go on to say that Vista is 60% less than that of XP. If the counting mechanisms were the same, where are you pulling your 60% number from? And, while we're at it, feel like citing a source for your 60% claim?

"Seriously, who talks like this?" The zit faced teenager using Daddy's Mac in the basement...that's who!!! --tayme

"Preseton Well, Unix dates before 1980, so I think you take that prize. " well said, I think what's histerical is watching mac fanboys cry nonsense when all they really know is how to use iphoto.

The Associated Press has gotten wind of this and found out that the size of the PC market has doubled, so of course Microsoft sold more OEM licenses. That's a lot of Vista PCs sitting on the shelves unused. Paul will post false OEM sales numbers from Microsoft, but completely ignore that Vista is freezing up when you copy or move files, as is being reported across the web today. What a polished operating system! Meanwhile, everyone in the know is waiting for OS X Leopard to blow Microsoft out of the water. Microsoft is dying...Google and Apple are leading the tech industry in 2007.

"Meanwhile, everyone in the know is waiting for OS X Leopard to blow Microsoft out of the water. Microsoft is dying...Google and Apple are leading the tech industry in 2007." There we go. Now my day is complete. *contented sigh*

I can't make it through lunch w/o my 'MS is dying' fix. I sure hope it hurries up though. At this rate I'll die before it.

"The Associated Press has gotten wind of this and found out that the size of the PC market has doubled, so of course Microsoft sold more OEM licenses. That's a lot of Vista PCs sitting on the shelves unused." ya and markets are built on how many units a manufacturer can build, not how many they can sell, eh? you're an idiot! "Paul will post false OEM sales numbers from Microsoft, but completely ignore that Vista is freezing up when you copy or move files, as is being reported across the web today." hmm....numbers from Microsoft, or some quip from bonch that Windows Vista is freezing. hmm....who to believe?.... "everyone in the know is waiting for OS X Leopard to blow Microsoft out of the water." being "in the know" means Robert Scoble, bonch, losta, and, well....gee, i can't think of anybody else. what do the 20 million Windows Vista customers think about that? "Google and Apple are leading the tech industry in 2007" an online advertising company and a computer maker of less than 2.5% of the market. *POP* oops, there goes that bubble! AHAHAHAHAHA! XP

Even Microsoft-Watch, a Windows fanboy site, is pointing out the falsehood of these numbers: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/stacking_vista_licenses_too_high.html

"Microsoft-Watch, a Windows fanboy site" ??? puh-leeze! Joe Wilcox is the first person to criticize Microsoft on eWeek (next to Steven Vaughn-Nichols, that is). it's funny how often Joe Wilcox writes articles that mirror exactly what Scoble says (i often think that Wilcox is just another pen-name for Scoble). i like some of his stupid lines though, like this one: "number of licenses sold is no way to reckon the operating system's sales success." methinks he should go back to Business 101. ....and this one: "Windows XP PCs purchased from Oct. 26, 2006 to March 15, 2007 were eligible for a free or substantially low-cost Vista upgrade. Microsoft includes these upgrades in the 20 million figure." really? how does this matter, since you couldn't actually order online until the end of January? they didn't count the number of redemption coupons as "sales", either, since they didn't charge anything for coupons. the statistics (according to Microsoft) fall between January 30th and the end of February, so this falls in line with the actual valid dates when you could order the Express Upgrade (Jan. 30th to March 15th). to argue this is just stupid. "Microsoft counts licenses sold to OEMs in the 20 million number, but the number of actual Vista PCs sold is likely much lower." and? Microsoft only made the point that THEY sold 20 million copies. who cares who actually bought them? PC makers are noticing a huge influx in sales now because people were holding off around the holiday season. "Except for some direct sales, "almost no one was building Windows XP PCs after Dec. 15,"" this only backs up MY claim! "A few years back, Microsoft changed its accounting to recognize license sales going into the channel rather than coming out." a good point, since Microsoft has no way to actually track all channel sales. the only way would be to audit every seller in the channel, which would be proposterous. XP

**NEWS FLASH** by Paul Thurrott a Wininformant EXCLUSIVE! I recently returned from my weekend visit to France (where I played with my xBox for two days straight) to discover that the recently-unleashed Microsoft Vista has sold more copies in a single day than DOS 3.0 sold during its entire supported lifespan! According to figures just released and obtained exclusively by ME from sources at Microsoft, sales of The Software Giant's latest operating system for last Friday have exceeded that of DOS 3.0 by a factor of, well, "an astounding amount." Sweaty Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer reacted to the news in his typical low-key fashion: "Wooo! Woooooooo! We expected Vista to be off the charts, but thanks to our CUSTOMERS! CUSTOMERS! CUSTOMERS! we've exceeded our highest expectations! Comparing Friday's sales to DOS 3.0, you can't even find a piece of paper big enough to print a Microsoft® Office® Excel® chart of this baby! Woooo! Wooooooooo! Somebody get me a chair! Woooooooooo!" Details of this EXCITING! development and screenshots are available on the Windows Supersite!