Windows 8 passes 100 million license sales, Microsoft reflects on the six month stage
After passing 60 million license sales in early January, Microsoft says it has now sold over 100 million Windows 8 licenses. The company has been rather quiet about its risky product bet recently, choosing to stay silent on numbers during its recent quarter and six month anniversary, but that radio silence has finally ended. The figures are almost identical to Windows 7's early sales performance, with the company originally announcing its 100 million goal for that particular OS on April 27th, 2010.
Recent figures from IDC and Gartner confirm that the traditional PC industry is in decline, and Microsoft's flat Windows revenue during Q3 supports that somewhat, but the company is still managing to shift licenses. While the numbers don't paint the whole picture, only showing retail and OEM license sales, the fact they match Windows 7 is encouraging at this early stage. The real question is whether Windows 8 is pushing demand for touch-based Windows machines. These particular devices are still missing on retail shelves, and a number of them are too pricey compared to the non-touch laptop alternatives. They're also the essential selling point for Windows 8.
"As we look back at where we were at the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT, at that point we were not happy with the overall level of touch assortment," says Microsoft's Windows CFO Tami Reller. Speaking to The Verge earlier this week, Reller says Microsoft has seen "some improvement" in the spring shopping period thanks to Atom-based tablets, but there's still some work to do to get these onto retail shelves. "You'll start to see a much broader range of touch PCs" in the back to school period this year, says Reller thanks to "material progress" on getting these devices to retailers. The real focus appears to be on the holiday season though, with new price points and varied devices running Windows 8 and even the upcoming update: Windows 8.1. "Holiday does really become, we believe, a tipping point for touch," says Reller, while noting that there will still be progress to be made even if devices are where Microsoft wants them to be.
On the topic of Surface sales, Reller says Microsoft is still not talking numbers. Recent figures from IDC suggest that Microsoft shipped 900,000 Surface tablets in the recent quarter, with Surface Pro making up the majority of sales. "The launch of Pro has also been helpful for Surface overall," says Reller, but the company isn't discussing exactly how popular Pro is compared to RT. Surface RT, which originally debuted on October 26th alongside the Windows 8 release, runs on Microsoft's ARM-based Windows RT operating system. Recently, Windows RT has come under fire from partners as lacking value and "disappointing," and the criticism is mounting.
"Our commitment to the ARM platform is very strong," says Reller. Nvidia and Qualcomm have been "two great partners" for Microsoft she says, so the company remains focused on Windows RT despite the criticism and early days. "We've done, I think, a good job at really listening to our partner feedback on where they want to take the ARM platform," says Reller. "We're listening, we're continuing to evolve, and I think you'll see that over the next several quarters from us…our continued agility on Windows RT and ARM."
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/7/4306292/windows-8-100-million-license-sales
Microsoft Has Sold Over 100 Million Windows 8 Licenses in First 6 Months
Microsoft revealed today that it has sold over 100 million licenses to Windows 8 in its first 6 months in the market, equaling the tally for its well-received predecessor, Windows 7, for the same time frame. But this means that Windows 8 is also tracking well below the average monthly sales of Windows 7 over its three years in the market.
"We recently surpassed the 100 million licenses sold mark for Windows 8," Microsoft Chief Marketing Officer Tami Reller said. "This number includes Windows licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8. This is up from the 60 million license number we provided in January. We’ve also seen the number of certified devices for Windows 8 and Window RT grow to 2,400 devices, and we’re seeing more and more touch devices in the mix."
Three years ago, Microsoft reported that Windows 7 had gotten off to “a strong start”: The firm sold over 100 million licenses to that version of Windows in its first six months in the market. This week’s revelation mirrors that milestone perhaps a bit too closely: Microsoft has now sold over 100 million licenses to Windows 8 in exactly the same time frame.
I’ve written repeatedly, however, that Microsoft averaged 20 million Windows 7 license sales over that OS’s three year life span. So it’s reasonable to rate Windows 8 license sales against that particular number. And if you go back to the firm’s previous (and to date only) Windows 8 sales figure, from January 8, you’ll find that Microsoft had claimed to have sold 60 million licenses at that time, three months into the OS’s lifecycle. Three times 20 million is 60 million, right on schedule.
100 million in 6 months, alas, is just 16.7 million licenses per month. Worse, if you are looking just at the three months since the last milestone, it’s only 13.3 million licenses per month. This means that Windows 8 experienced a temporary bump in its first quarter of sales because of the normal launch bump, of course, but also because of a temporary upgrade offer during which Windows 8 Pro Upgrade could be had for next to nothing. Since then, Windows 8 license sales have fallen off sharply.
Granted, the first half of the year isn’t a traditional high point for PC sales, and of course many who might otherwise buy a Windows PC or device now are waiting for new models based on new hardware architectures as well as the rumors mini-tablets. Those latter machines should provide a nice license sales bump, just as netbooks did for Windows 7.
But there is one more thing.
In addition to repeating the “20 million licenses per month” mantra as a measurement of Windows 8’s success, I’ve also pointed out that because Windows 8 targets a much bigger potential market than did Windows 7—which is to say, PCs + hybrid PCs + tablets + other devices, instead of just PCs—that this figure should be considered a minimum for Windows 8 to be successful. Arguably, it should be much higher, especially considering the growth rate in the tablet market in particular. 16.7 million per month, let alone 13.3 million, just isn’t cutting it.
So you’re going to see some interesting cheerleading pieces today from the usual suspects, as well as boilerplate doom and gloom stories from the anti-Microsoft crowd. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in the middle, and you should simply ignore the partisan attack dogs. Windows 8 is obviously a long-term play, and the story is still unfolding. This level of sales going forward—or, worse, the downward trend suggested by these numbers—is not acceptable. For now, we’re in a wait and see mode. And the coming quarters as well as pending announcements about Microsoft’s plans to improve Windows 8 with “Blue” will do a lot to help a clearer picture emerge.
Windows 8 sells 100 million licenses, SkyDrive hits 250 million users, and more big Microsoft numbers
It’s been a little over six month since Windows 8 launched for consumers. How’s it doing right now? If you listened to the critics and pundits you’d be under the impression that Windows 8 was a flop – another Vista most of them joke. Because we all know Microsoft can’t make two good operating systems in a row, right? I disagree! Today we learn that Windows 8 is on pace to catch up with Windows 7 sales-wise, plus more interesting facts and figures.
How has Windows 8 performed in 2013? Back in early January we learned that Microsoft had sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses. Now remember, everyone is comparing Windows 8 against Windows 7. It took 183 days for Windows 7 to get to the 100 million mark for licenses sold. Windows 8 has finally hit 100 million as well. It took 192 days to get there, which isn't too far off from its predecessor.
Tami Reller, Chief Marketing and Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft, shared some more stats and nuggets of information on Windows 8 in a Q&A for the Windows Blog. She went on the record acknowledging the existence of Windows ‘Blue’. This is the second time we’ve heard some info on the future update to all of the services and products from Microsoft. Tami didn’t really add anything new to information surrounding Blue - just the usual PR talk about the update incorporating customer feedback and the blood of virgins. Well, maybe not so much blood.
Some bulletin points to ponder:
- Windows Store has grown by a magnitude of six since launch
- 250 million Windows Store downloads in first six months
- Nearly 90 percent of the app catalog has been downloaded every month
- 250 million active SkyDrive users
- 400 million active Outlook.com accounts
- Over 700 million Microsoft accounts
We’re still in the middle of Microsoft executing their vision of three screens and a cloud. We’ve got the next Xbox right around the corner to tackle the living room. And //BUILD/ should give insight into future plans for both Windows Phone and Windows 8. Exciting times!
Six months after Windows 8 launched, Microsoft looks to be in a fairly solid position. If this is what the “post-PC” era looks like, I like it.
http://www.wpcentral.com/windows-8-100-million-licenses
