Lol. Lets replace this threads "rumor" with fact: Windows 8 is selling better than Windows 7 with over 40 Million licenses sold in one month.

Unfortunately when Microsoft says 40 million licenses sold they include all the OEM licenses that hardware vendors had to buy to build Windows 8 PCs, Laptops and surface tablets. They also include licenses they gave away at various conferences and gatherings. It's called shelfware. i.e. the hardware is still sitting on a shelf somewhere. They've been doing that since the dawn of time. I should know, I've been watching them for 27 years. :)

That is the exact same situation as win 7, vista, XP and every other version so there is nothing unfortunate or bad about the numbers, it is still the fastest selling OS ever, if you think there are 40 million PC's sitting on shelves then you really don't know.

On the plus side, MS did consumers a solid by making the upgrade cheaper than any previous version.

On the negative side, barring integration with touch screen enabled PCs/tablets, there's not much of a clear incentive for the average user or business to upgrade from Win 7.

I ran the pre-release candidate and other than the wall of tiles that replaced the Start Menu, I was unable to find any advantages that would make it worth my (at the time) presumed $130 upgrade since I don't have a touch screen desktop, laptop or Windows tablet PC.

Even at a very reasonable $70, I just don't see the point in upgrading until I have to due to dropped support for Win 7 or I buy a new PC with touch screen capabilities.

So, like many others apparently, if the alleged slow sales are confirmed, I won't be upgrading to Win 8 unless it comes installed on a new PC that I buy.

I suspect a significant number of Win 8 copies sold were pre-installed on new devices.

I feel like this is the first sign of Windows 8 becoming a purely social and personal OS, and Windows 9 will wither be an excellent hybrid for business and personal, or will launch earlier than we expect and focus solely on business... A slightly different business pattern than they've been using, but if businesses don't upgrade at all, they might need to rethink things...

I just bought a new Vaio with windows 8. I used windows 8 and it is great. People will catch on.

Nobody said there are 40 million Windows 8 PCs sitting on shelves. Dell, HP, Acer, Gateway etc. have all purchased licenses for Windows 8, millions of which haven't even been used yet but MS in this case is counting it as a sale. It may look like more than Windows 7 but I guarantee that more of the licenses for Windows 7 were actually in use by human beings after the first month.

I know I upgraded my machine from Vista to Windows 7 as soon as it was available as did millions of people who had to suffer through the POS that was Vista. There's absolutely no reason for anyone running a PC or Laptop that doesn't have a touch screen to go anywhere near Windows 8. I'm only running it on one of my machines because it was cheaper to buy than a physical copy of Windows 7

They realize Windows 8 is not doing well and have admitted it. The OEMs and vendors are saying that it's not selling well too. She was told to put a spin on it so that it would look like it is doing better than it is for the frikkin' shareholders. They didn't have to do that with Windows 7 because the OS was actually selling.

A sale should indicate a product in use, but in this case it indicates permission to use a product and nothing else. That's why she says 40 million licenses not 40 million copies of Windows 8. So no it's not the OS that has sold at all.

Just Google Windows 8 sales and with a bit of actual reading you'll discover that Tami Reller's 40 million licenses comment means absolutely nothing. Strictly a dance for people with money invested in M$ so that they won't start panic selling.

... and if you don't understand that then it's YOU that really doesn't know. 

MSFT stock prices over the last month indicate nothing in regards to meeting or exceeding expectations with regards to sales of both Surface RT and Win 8.

It's currently trading at $26.95 off a low of $26.52 from a peak of $29.86 in the month since the debut of both.

While the drop of a stock price that has hovered stagnantly around the $30 mark on average for the past ten years could be attributed to many things, this is hardly an indicator of overwhelming success for the new products.

http://news.yahoo.com/windows-pc-retail-sales-fall-windows-8-npd-182512480--finance.html

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Consumer sales of Windows-powered personal computers fell 21 percent overall last month, figures released by a leading retail research firm showed on Thursday, indicating a lackluster debut for Microsoft Corp's Windows 8 operating system.

Many in the industry said Windows 8 might revive slack PC sales, but a report by NPD Group, which tracks computer sales weekly using data supplied by retailers, dampened those hopes.

On the same day, Microsoft announced pricing for its latest device designed to break Apple Inc's stranglehold on the tablet and lightweight laptop market. It is offering the Surface tablet running the full version of Windows 8 from $899, pitching it somewhere between Apple's latest iPad and MacBook Air laptop.

Since the launch of Windows 8 on October 26, Windows laptop sales are down 24 percent, while desktop sales are down 9 percent compared with the same period last year, making an overall 21 percent dip, NPD Group said.