Microsoft sells 20 million Vista licenses

Microsoft claims Windows Vista is off to a fast start, having sold more than 20 million copies since its January 30 consumer release.

By comparison, in its first two months, Windows XP sold 17 million copies, Microsoft said.

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

Of course, the PC market has grown substantially since XP hit store shelves. In 2001, worldwide PC shipments totaled 136 million units, while last year the industry shipped 227 million computers, according to IDC.

And Microsoft's figures include not only boxed copy sales and those included on new PCs, but also people who bought Windows XP during the holiday season and have applied for their free Vista upgrade since the mainstream launch of Vista.

In an interview, Windows marketing director Bill Mannion said that the upgrade program did help the sales figures, but said it wasn't the driving factor. "It's boosting the overall number, but it's certainly not the core component of the 20 million," he said.

PC makers also say that they are encouraged by early results for Windows Vista.

"Overall we've seen a pretty good reaction to the release of Vista," said Kenneth Walker, chief technologist at PC maker Gateway.

Both Microsoft and the PC makers also say they are seeing a shift to higher-end versions of Vista. When XP made its debut in 2001, it came in two main flavors--Home and Professional. The company eventually added the Tablet PC and Media Center editions, and over time, Media Center became the dominant version on retail shelves. Vista comes in six flavors--Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate, as well as a Starter Edition only sold on new PCs in emerging markets.

Mannion said that Microsoft is even seeing better-than-expected sales of the pricey Ultimate edition. "We have relatively modest expectations for Ultimate, but it's exceeding that on both new PCs and the packaged product."

Walker said that Gateway has seen more customers on its Web site choosing the Ultimate edition than it initially expected. Customers who go to the Web often buy high-end machines, and those buyers may want to try to "future-proof" their PC by opting for the most full-featured version they can get.

He likens it to car buyers who buy more horsepower than they need. "How many people buy the V8 instead of the V6?" Walker said. Or how many go with the optional towing package, "even though they have nothing to tow?"

Hewlett-Packard, which sells most of its PCs through retail stores, said it is has seen "not much interest" in the Ultimate version thus far. The company said it has seen consumers opt for PCs with more memory as well as machines with Windows Vista Home Premium.

Bruce Greenwood, vice president of notebooks and North American channel sales for HP, said that with both laptops and desktops, HP is seeing a shift away from the lowest memory systems and those with Vista Home Basic toward machines with 1GB or more of memory.

Although Microsoft is counting in its sales totals those who bought XP machines late last year and have applied for a free "Express Upgrade" to Vista, most PC makers have only this month started to ship the copies. The program has been a source of considerable frustration for many buyers who have had trouble registering and getting approved for their upgrade.

Mannion said Microsoft hopes such problems are largely a thing of the past.

"That appears to be behind us now," Mannion said. "We understand manufacturers to be in full shipment mode."

[bobby_brady]

That's not what Ballmer said

a month ago or so.

[frankwick]

What did Ballmer say?

I remember he said to "temper your enthusiasm" regarding sales, but I don't think he made any sales comparisons or gave any figures or projections.

[Akiba]

Key phrase, a month or so ago.

I shouldn't have to elaborate any further but since it was in your own quote I guess its necessary. Vista has only been on retail for about 3 months. A month or so ago is very close to the launch date. So is it entirely possible that sales could be good even if the initial launch day or month isn't great?

[Thomas, David]

Sad, sad sad

"However, Microsoft's figures include not only boxed copy sales
and those included on new PCs, but also people who bought
Windows XP during the holiday season and have applied for their
free Vista upgrade since the mainstream launch of Vista."

In other words, every PC with Vista installed on it from the
OEMs. Considering the fact the OEMs are discouraged from any
other version of the opeating system speaks to only one thing.

THIS STORY BLOWS

[fcekuahd]

Yeah, this is BS

Show us side-by-side numbers for each segment. i.e.

- OEM licenses
- Boxed sales (full version)
- Boxed sales (upgrades)
- Volume licenses (full version)
- Volume licenses (upgrades)
- Coupon upgrades

Without this, these numbers are absolutely meaningless.

[Akiba]

Thats business and OEM sales make money. Sooo.

I don't see how thats relevant to how good their sales figures are. They still made money from the OEM copies so why shouldn't that be included in their sales figures? They were able to pressure the OEMS because of their previous sales figures. It is their job to discuorage competitors products. So they are better at business.

[rcrusoe]

Same song, different day

Give it a break, Microsoft. The "Vista sales are doing great" song is getting real old.

There new stores every week about another big company or government agency that has issued a "NO VISTA" (and/or Microsoft Office 2007) policy.

Vista will be successful in the long run because the world has yet to break itself of its Windows addiction. But it appears to me, that the majority of Vista sales are consumers that don't know any better, and businesses that are future proofing their licenses by purchasing Vista but installing XP.

Vista has a ton of problems, and wise Windows consumers (isn't that a contradiction of terms?) are waiting for SP1.

[frankwick]

SP1

I really think SP1 is part of MS's sales plan. They have stated that SP1 will ship when longhorn server ships. This will be MUCH earlier than traditional service packs. Vista, as it exists today, is really more solid than people want to claim, so why are they pushing a SP out so quickly? The reason is sales - early adopters have stated they want the first SP to be available before they roll it out. It's all part of the MS plan.

[law_hog]

You're Right.....

Same song, different day (are you an "Apple guy"?)

The correct proclamation from government and industry IT is "No Vista.... yet." As someone who deals with highly customized software apps, the move to Vista is planned. Vista is a new technology, not just a facelift for an old framework. That's why the switch is being planned cautiously, but it is anticipated.

Sadly, we're seeing green envy from the Apple folks who would be delighted with annual sales of OSX that are 10% of the figure that Vista had since January.

I'm not saying Vista is perfect, but as someone who runs both XP and Vista, it is a significant improvement and deserves it's sales, whether OEM or retail.

[Stating]

And Castro Will Be Re-elected

Microsoft's crowing that Vista sales are doing so well is only because consumers have no other choice of Windows operating system when they buy a new computer. This is akin to Castro bragging that he has won yet another landslide election as President.

As for the HP comment about consumers shunning low-end Vista computers, well if you walk into a Circuit City or CompUSA and the sales people all tell you that you need at least 1 gig of memory and a high-end processor to efficiently run Vista, what are you going to do? Buy a low-end, slow computer?


"Bruce Greenwood, vice president of notebooks and North American channel sales for HP, said that with both laptops and desktops, HP is seeing a shift away from the lowest memory systems and those with Vista Home Basic toward machines with 1GB or more of memory."

[Lindy01]

I just

bought a new 15.4 inch notebook on sale at Circuit City last Wednesday.

It came with 1gig of ram, 1.73ghz Core Duo, 160gig HD, DL-DVD burner, Intel a,b,g wireless card, and built in intel graphics 950GM.

It also came with Vista Premium all for $699 after a mail in rebate. There vast majority of notebooks came with 1gig of ram. Only 1 or 2 came with 512meg. Only few came with 2gig....only a few cost more than $1000.

I am sure the same ws true when when XP came out compared to notebooks with 98.

Yesterday Best Buy had one on sale for $699 same specs except a 120gig drive.

So much FUD. Vista is stable, just as stable as XP, it runs fine on a system with 1gig of RAM, and it will out sell any and all other OS'es in the first 6 months of its life.

[Nizzuts]

no choice?

Doesn't Apple have retail stores? Can you buy an Mac on the web? I thought I read someplace that HP will sell you a linux box with Ubuntu or some other distro. Isn't Dell doing that too? You can also download any number of linux distros, right? Why do you think you don't have any choice?

>> well if you walk into a Circuit City or CompUSA and the sales people all tell you that you need at least 1 gig of memory and a high-end processor to efficiently run Vista, what are you going to do?

Do you also buy the 'extended warranty' every time they recommend it? This isn't bad advice though - frankly, it just doesn't make sense to buy a machine with 512MB of memory or an old processor - economies of scale set the price point, and buying an outdated system doesn't make sense financially.

[Nizzuts]

no choice?

Doesn't Apple have retail stores? Can you buy an Mac on the web? I thought I read someplace that HP will sell you a linux box with Ubuntu or some other distro. Isn't Dell doing that too? You can also download any number of linux distros, right? Why do you think you don't have any choice?

>> well if you walk into a Circuit City or CompUSA and the sales people all tell you that you need at least 1 gig of memory and a high-end processor to efficiently run Vista, what are you going to do?

Do you also buy the 'extended warranty' every time they recommend it? This isn't bad advice though - frankly, it just doesn't make sense to buy a machine with 512MB of memory or an old processor - economies of scale set the price point, and buying an outdated system doesn't make sense financially.

[Catmoves]

Castro and CompUSA

Loved your comparing Vista to a Cstro "election". But CompUSA? I thought they were busy going out of business?

[open-mind]

Probably a simple explanation.

Most of Vista copies "sold" are bundled on new PC's, and the PC market is probably larger now than when XP was released. XP was released in 2001, the era of the dot-com implosion.

[inachu]

Installed Vista... 3 days later fdisked the hard drive.

Vista killed the networking component 100%
Tried a repair funtion but vista could no longer see the nic or wifi pci card.
Nothing worked so I fdisked the HD and reinstalled Windows XP Pro.

Lesson learned: If it isn't broken then don't fix it. I'm staying with XP until Vista comes out with SP1

[sanenazok]

sounds like

This looks like a drivers issue. I.e. it's the type of problem that won't really be fixed by a service pack. You need to download vista drivers for your nic's, both wired and wireless. In any case, moving back to XP may be a good idea.

[real_bgiel]

Fools rush in.

For the average guy, wait for your next computer to come with Vista pre-installed.

Most of the "experts" discourage upgrading existing PC's to Vista since there is little substantial difference from XP SP2.

I guess Microsoft wants to make Vista upgrades trendy... "Everybody's going for it, why aren't you?"

[Thomas, David]

I wonder

I wonder when people are going to realize that Vista is one gigantic
piece of spyware for Microsoft? Granted, many other issues have
taken the spotlight, but given the fact of their XBox support
debacle, maybe that should be revisited.

[Grumpyz77]

If you value your freedom, don't do it

Starting with XP and making it worse with VISTA are the DRM nannies. According to both, I don't have the rights to the music I wrote. Forget about changing from MP3 to WMA format (or any for that matter) 'cause you can't. Trying ripping a movie you paid for in the brave new world. There will always be a least 1 Windows 2K and 1 MAC OS9 in the house. VISTA sux.

[sanenazok]

I keep hearing this

I keep seeing the comments how Vista has really big and bad DRM and how it takes people's freedom away. I got a laptop in Feb. running Vista and loaded it up with my MP3 files and divx movies I backed up from DVD's. Everything plays fine. If someone doesn't like the DRM in Vista, you don't have to use Windows Media Player 11, you can use any number of open source or other media players that have no DRM restrictions. As far as converting from MP3 to WMA, I used that function in WMP11 so I don't know what you're talking about. If you're looking to convert music, use a program called DBPowerAmp. It'll work fine with or without DRM.

[shoffmueller]

That doesn't make any sense

"I don't have the rights to the music I wrote"? What on earth does Vista and DRM have to do with your rights to the music you wrote?

[LarryLo]

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure!

With Government agencies and most of the internet running from Vista, I guess they needed to make..errr.. report some good news.

You have to be careful with MS licenses, sometimes large enterprise customers will simple buy the license for Vista but continue to run XP for a few more years, simply because its doesn't make sense to buy the outdated XP CAL.

I would like to see Retail Box unity to Retail Box unit sales comparison. Then I would like to see Boxed unit as a percentage of total computers in US. That gives the best view of how consumers are reacting to vista.

[Penguinisto]

Vista -> XP shift is called "downgrade rights"

...and I'm pretty sure MSFT counts each OEM Vista bumped back to XP as a "Vista" sale (hence their "licenses sold" qualifier).

/P

[WJeansonne]

A sales is a sale, duh!

Who cares if they run it or not. They bought, so it counts.

[LarryLo]

Your ignorance shines like a bright light in Baller's @$$

The point is, MS is flaunting this as some sort of validation of how wonderful Vista is. When in fact these figures on their own don't mean very much at all.

The point is, the general computing population is not so thrilled with Vista, which has lead to slow retail sales.

Lets talk about installed base, lets see those numbers.

[WJeansonne]

This ought relagate Linux and the Mac to Trash Heap of History

The Windows Vista operating system is so feature rich, you would be a fool to buy anything else. Moreover, we haven't even seen many applications that have taken full advantage of it. Linux is looking more and more like a turkey, and well the Mac, just a specialist platform for doing graphics design, but not much else.

[emagdnim015]

Really?

Please describe these features, because everything that I've heard of that is "great" on Vista was in OSX a few years ago.

[Thomas, David]

Ignorance is Bliss

You apparently take that sentiment to heart. "Vista is so
feature rich ..." my head exploded on that one. It then
proceeded to implode when you compared it to the other
innovative operating systems.

Disallowing the "emotional" response to your inane post, there
are more features (lol, that work as well), in OSX, and linux
support than there are in Vista. Since these "features" (I call
them part of the necessary evolution of software and
computing), have been in these other options, there have been
applications built to take advantage of them.

Your comment of the Mac, as a specialist platform only further
illustrates your complete ignorance.

[sanenazok]

you probably meant

...and well the Mac, just a specialist OVERPRICED, AND OVER-MARKETED platform for doing graphics design, but not much else

[fcekuahd]

Haw haw haw -- another brillian comment from WJeansonne

We can always rely on you for your moronic and unwavering jingoism. With your talent for objective observation you should be a journalist.

[Tech38]

What department in Microsoft do you work for?

Vista is feature-rich? Are you completely insane or just stupid. How much does Microsoft pay you to post such idiotic statements. Vista is garbage. Just ask the 700,000 people who have filed formal complaints in the last two months.

Why don't you get a job at a real software company and leave the propaganda position at Microsoft. Is your momma proud of you?

[wolivere]

How does it blow?

I saw someone mention once about this linux distro, and how they tracked its numbers by recording every IP address that downloaded it. Not everyone who registered but every unigue IP address.... wierd DHCP broadband for the win there.

I see people say large government org's well your right, thats how it was with 95, 98 2000 XP. Heck I had one division here just finish upgrading from 98 to XP. But I also have another division with 400 seats going with Vista.

I know many are OSX fans or Linux fans, but the reality is Linux is far away from being stable enough at the desktop side to be viable.

And wait all the Ubuntu/SuSe fan's. Please think about it for a minute or 3.

What are the issues? Well have you ever tried to get the Nvidia or ATI drivers to work proper? I don't mean the native open source ones that don't support direct rendering, or do so at a snails pace. I mean the ones that have proper hardware support?

We support a unit on it, and its a pain in the arse. As we type this I am struggling through 100 broken desktops that just got Xorg 7.3 and are struggling to redo the ATI drivers due to the missing linux-kernel-headers breaking the rpm build.

Have you taken the time to look at the list of bug fix's still in process? I am boggled at this last issue since it was well documented back in November about this issue with the kernel headers but it still pushed out out on the 21st.

Many of those people in that unit use laptops with external monitors on a docking chasis. One thing that drives me nuts with Linux, is the inability to properly support the senario. And I am sure someone will say just do this. Trust me, we have a guy here who loves linux, and he has posted on forums spoken to dev's at Novell. And the proplem still exists, as well as the issue with KVM's and switching back and forth.

Or the openoffice habbit of just stopping, sure no blue screen but sitting at a totally no responsive screen, where you are force to alt-ctril-backspace is no fun either.

There is lots of promise in Linux still I love what beryl shows off (when it don't crash)

but really when a person uses a desktop PC, and needs something beyond just a nice browser platform. Walking someone through the process of making sure they have all the proper packages installed, then walking them through making them through generating the rpm, for the ATI or Nvidia driver, and telling them to please make sure they tell you when they see a warning.. why call it a warning when its a show stopper?

Anyhow, then having them init 3 install the RPM run SAX, make sure its looks okay then walk them through VI to edit the xorg.conf to make sure all the needed entries are there, then running glxinfo makeing sure it all looks good.

Then having them reboot only to find that the 1280*1024 they selected is for some reason screwed up at 800*600 then walking them through fixing the error in the include file to fix the bugged install to set the horizontal frequenzy back to what it should be for the damm standard NEC LCD screen.

Just for a video driver, when they can use XP or Vista go to the site, download the driver run it reboot and 99% of the time its fine.

What really is a **** off is when the system does the X11 upgrade and sure you don't know you have an issue yet, it don't ask you to reboot, you don't even know the new package is not running yet, your still using the old package, then you reboot nd wonder why your sitting at a command prompt and open your log file and wonder *** (EE) no device driver

That is one example of the pain trying to support a standard Linux build in a productive work environment where it uses more then basic apps.

Don't get me started with the guy who filled his system with MP3's deleted them and did not empty the trash and rebooted unable to get a gui since there was insufficent space .....

[Penguinisto]

...and will there be rain to water the astroturf?

Umm, got problems here w/ some of your logic:

[i]"but the reality is Linux is far away from being stable enough at the desktop side to be viable."[/i]

Let me get this straight for a sec... Linux is stable enough to dominate the server market (you know, an environment where Stability is King?), yet you assert that it's not "stable" enough for desktops?

Anyone else care to enlighten us on that one?

Class?

Yeah...

[i]"Well have you ever tried to get the Nvidia or ATI drivers to work proper?"[/i]

Sure - they work just fine out of the box if you have any common video card. Oh... you wanted 3D acceleration... (for a [i]business environment[/i]? weird). Well, for most distros it's a simple download+run of the manufacturer's driver... just like in Windows, come to think of it.

Except, you know something? If you buy cheap/grey-market/off-brand vidcards, neither OS will behave worth a damn... but at least you'd still have a running machine in Linux; if the Windows driver doesn't like it (troubles there come just as often, unless it's Vista + ATI or Vista + NVIDIA, then it hits almost all of the time), you get to boot into Safe Mode repeatedly until you get the faulty driver fully uninstalled.

[i]"Don't get me started with the guy who filled his system with MP3's deleted them and did not empty the trash and rebooted unable to get a gui since there was insufficent space"[/i]

Umm, what color is the sky on your planet? That simply does not happen (deleted/trash-binned items are simply marked as such; they don't get copied or moved for hell's sake...)

Next time you want to troll, maybe you could/should do more than just google through linux-questions.org first? ;)

/P

[shoffmueller]

Rule #1 of discussion board posting

The average reader won't read word one of a 700+ word comment. This isn't a comment, it's a manifesto!

[Penguinisto]

If Vista is selling so hot, then explain this:

Explain this.

After all, if Vista is selling like hotcakes, then why the big fat desire to offer even more discounts? To wit:

[i]"The program gives users a 10 percent discount on up to five additional Windows Vista licenses. Customers are eligible to buy licenses for the edition of Windows Vista that they already own. That is, a customer with Home Premium can buy up to five additional Home Premium licenses, but cannot purchase a combination of Home Premium and Ultimate licenses, for instance."[/i]

...class?

(...anyone else thinking that the *cough*MSFTpressrelease*cough* CNET article is just Yet Another Instance of Lowered Expectations on MSFT's part?)

/P

[ferretboy88]

I didn't understand a word you said

Your comments are just like linux. takes too much time to do anything with.

[wolivere]

I don't know

Why do companies like Blizzard with over 8 million subs over 14 day free trials or free time to friends who sign up friends.

Why do the big car manufatures who have the #1 auto's offer cash back rebates?

And on and on and on...

[ryanbohn]

Micrsoft is misleading us...

What they haven't told us is that due to licensing agreements between MS and all major pc vendors, the vendors are REQUIRED to put Vista on all new PCs in order to get rebates back from MS, regardless if you want it or not. If the vendors don't do that, MS can "disenfranchise them", as one vendor told me. The "20 million vista licenses sold" number should not be taken fully as a number to show approval or acceptance of Vista, as I'm sure MS is trying to spin it here, but should be a sign to us of how many people Microsoft has force Vista upon. Granted there are those who have willfully purchased it on a PC or boxed, but still, we need to take it with a big grain of salt.

[btljooz]

Yep, and it's nothing new. You are so correct! n/t

n/t

[wolivere]

Thanks But your off on a bit

Now so lets cover some of your mistakes.

Sever stability IE no user interaction at console is different then a user who is a the screen. And no Linux does not domaintes the server market 24% of new buissiness in the replacement of older UNIX, Big iron box's is not dominate.

On the drivers, not everyone uses just word processing there are people who need other apps that are either media heavy, driver heavy GIS anyone.

And no its not as easy as you say. You don't just download it and run it. If you did you better check your system, your drivers are not installed.

Here are three links for explanation for you.

http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/ati-installer-HOWTO.html

http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/17340.html

http://en.opensuse.org/ATI_Driver_HOWTO

Your right it should mark it for delete. But see there is a bug when you hit 100%. It does not work.

If you are running Beryl or COPMIZ, your system at 100% will get extremly slow...very very very slow. Like 5 minutes to drag your mouse to the trash..

It will say it emptied.. and will look empty, so you will reboot thinking you are okay.

And you will crash..

Then you will google for the answer and find oh wow seams like lots of people had this issue.

So you will open a terminal window and delete the files in the trash.

Try this in google... find out for your self.

linux full disk delete trash

Now once you fixed the problem you will now find your trash will always think it has trash to empty but you can fix that also.

You can also find this bug well documented on bugzilla..

http://en.opensuse.org/Submit_a_Bug#Searching_for_Bugs



So..

[wolivere]

OOps

THis was meant as a reply to my reply

[Penguinisto]

Actually, not at all - check it:

"[i]Sever stability IE no user interaction at console is different then a user who is a the screen"[/i]

Ah, but you never said that... you said "Linux" was not stable enough, not Xorg (you know there is a difference, right?) As for Xorg, you mention Beryl and/or COMPIZ... which will be covered in a moment, though neither are business-grade applications.

Also, you made the fundamental mistake of counting sales, not actual installs in the server market ;)

Now, as to driver installs: Your very first link basically says to start YaST (a GUI-based front-end), select the site you need the driver from, then download and install it. So how is that hard (or even different from what I said)?

"If you are running Beryl or COPMIZ..."

...and why are you running beta-level high-end stuff on business desktops?

As for the trash thing, I found (using your exact search term) three items in Google... all pointing to OpenSuSE (along w/ the bug report thingy you pointed to). Again, I refer you to the phrase "business desktops"... why aren't you using SLED? You talk about all these supposed failings of a linux desktop in business, yet you're using unstable bleeding-edge releases?

Little wonder you're having to weed out issues...

/P

[RompStar_420]

BS and more BS

Vista is selling very poorly by individual purchasers, and by that I mean, people who walk into a store and pick Vista from a retail shelf.

MS spins it daily, there are people who's job is to figure out how to spin it and bend people's oppinions.

Vista won't even install on my computer at all and I have a new computer, so there.

[Akiba]

Sure it won't, unless...

You don't know what your doing. Drop me a few hundred dollars via paypal and I'll do it for you.

[DrtyDogg]

Wow, think about what you just said

Vista boxed copies aren't selling well, followed by it won't even install on my computer. Hmmmm why would boxed copies sell well if it needs better hardware than many people are currently running?

[emagdnim015]

o really

i did.

it was a dell inspiron with windows vista ultimate, 2 gigs of 667ghz ram(upgrade), 2.0ghz c2d (macbook has 2.16). it was $2,012 before any rebates, $12 more than the macbook.

[Razzl]

Let them blow...

...smoke up CNET's recycle bin. We know those numbers are cooked and they can only keep this up for a quarter or two before the huge base of people who are buying new computers THAT DON'T WORK RIGHT BECAUSE OF VISTA and people who have damaged their existing files with "upgrades" warn enough of the populace that even sales of new computers will be affected. Microsoft can't fix what's wrong here enough to stave off loss of market share to Mac and even Ubuntu (which, honestly, is the only flavor of Linux most newbies will ever try, but it's getting better every day).

At some point the market will punish even a monopolist if they fail badly enough, which is what Microsoft has done here...