I read that Microsoft has reported that it has sold more than 20 million Windows Vista licenses in February 2007, the first month after the operating system’s general debut in January. It also stated that that would be twice the sales rate of its predecessor, Windows XP.
Let’s see…it’s been five years since Windows XP so I would think the existing base of PC’s would be much, much larger. I wonder what percentage of Vista licenses to total Windows PC’s now would be, compared to Windows XP to total PC’s when it debuted? I believe that would give a truer picture of Vista vs. XP sales rates.
Statistics can be made to prove anything you want them to. :-)
Update 3/27/07:
Ars Technica has taken a look at Microsoft’s Vista sales claim with much the same view as I mentioned in this post. From their article “Vista’s twofold sales boost: MIcrosoft should thank PC market growth:”
…even assuming a dropoff in sales for Q1 2007, the “doubling” effect can easily be explained by rising PC sales alone. In early 2002, ten million new PCs were sold each month, along with 8.5 million copies of Windows XP. If the numbers hold, the first quarter of 2007 will see at least 21 million new PCs sold per month with Microsoft’s announced 20 million copies of Windows Vista.
As you can see they feel the increase of Vista Sales over XP Sales can easily be explained by a similar increase in sales of new PC’s.
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