Windows 8 Hits 100 Million Sales

[Fanghawk]

Windows 8 Hits 100 Million Sales

Despite its detractors, the number of licenses sold for Windows 8 are comparable to those for Windows 7.

When Windows 8 was first announced, with a touchscreen-geared interface reminiscent of smartphones, many were fairly skeptical of its prospects. Today, if you Google search "most hated Windows OS", you'll see a long list of Windows 8 criticisms, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118846-Notch-Windows-8-Could-Be-Very-Very-Bad-for-Indies>including a few from prominent game developers. Before we write Windows 8 off entirely however, it's worth noting that the operating system is actually doing okay. Despite lower overall average sales compared to its predecessor, Microsoft revealed that Windows 8 sold 100 million licenses in its first six months alone.

While 100 million is certainly a landmark achievement, that doesn't mean everything's coming up Microsoft. The bulk of Windows 8 sales, roughly 60 million copies, occurred during its first two months. That means sales dropped to 40 million from January to May, which isn't a good sign for Windows 8's long-term prospects. That said, the more popular Windows 7 also achieved 100 million in the same timeframe, and went on to boast 240 by its first year. The question is whether Microsoft can turn those decreasing sales around in time.

"Is it perfect? No," says Microsoft Windows unit co-head Tami Reller. "Are there things we need to change? Absolutely. We are being very real about what needs to change and changing it as thoughtfully and quickly as we can." More specifically, Reller notes that Microsoft is adjusting Windows 8's learning curve for traditional customers, and will make the platform more usable across various devices.

Considering how competitive the market has become since Windows 7, achieving 240 million sales by October is a pretty daunting benchmark for Microsoft. Still, 100 million is a great starting point, given the criticisms, and could increase further following <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/120854-New-Windows-OS-May-Launch-by-2013>the upcoming Windows Blue upgrade.

Source: Joystiq

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[Zombie_Moogle]

Considering that actual PC and Windows tablet sales have supposedly been pretty dismal, does anyone else find this a bit peculiar?

 

[Genocidicles]

Probably wouldn't have sold anywhere near that much if you could still buy pre-built PCs with Windows 7.

Everyone I know who uses it only has it because it came with the laptop they wanted, and they couldn't buy that laptop with Windows 7 installed.

 

[Deshin]

Wouldn't the majority of those sales be attributed to shops and retailers buying in bulk to attach onto pre-built machines? I know my laptop came with Windows 8 on it but after a week I uninstalled it and put my copy of 7 onto it. Do I count as a "sale"?

I'd like to know how many of those 100 million were actual walk-in-store customers looking to actively upgrade their machine as opposed to bulk retailer purchases.

Edit:

Probably wouldn't have sold anywhere near that much if you could still buy pre-built PCs with Windows 7.

Everyone I know who uses it only has it because it came with the laptop they wanted, and they couldn't buy that laptop with Windows 7 installed.

Dat Ninja.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I agree with others that have said it, if it wasn't preinstalled on new PCs, I'm sure that number wouldn't be that large. The laptop I'm using to type this was bought only two weeks ago, and I had no choice but to have Windows 8 on it. And "Once you get used to it" isn't a positive point for an OS from the same company, I wish people would quit telling me that.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Considering that actual PC and Windows tablet sales have supposedly been pretty dismal, does anyone else find this a bit peculiar?

Not really, Microsoft's major sales come from OE contracts rather than retail customers, so they will have had this first year and x-million units shipped before the Windows 8 even came out. For OE sales they offer the current model or nothing, incidentally this bit them in the arse when Vista came out and the world resoundingly answered 'XP please,'

 

[Deshin]

Probably wouldn't have sold anywhere near that much if you could still buy pre-built PCs with Windows 7.

Everyone I know who uses it only has it because it came with the laptop they wanted, and they couldn't buy that laptop with Windows 7 installed.

So it's basically the Origin of OSs?

To be perfectly fair: The only reason I ended up installing Steam in the first place was because Borderlands 2 outright demanded me to. Not to say I wouldn't have done it eventually, I probably would have, but ya can't call out Origin on shit that Steam pulled too. It's actually worse because Origin is demanded for EA titles whereas I'm pretty sure Borderlands 2 doesn't have anything to do with Valve.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

This doesn't surprise me at all given the last two days all electronic stores on my island no longer have OS 7 and only have 8 which just seems like I've got no other option and I'd be forced to buy into their new OS which I don't like at all.

Unlucky for them since I went and bought a new copy of 7 online since I don't want a new OS shoved down my throat and in future don't press this tactic because it will only piss customers off and they'll just go somewhere else.

 

[cidbahamut]

It's only doing ok because it's difficult to buy a new machine without Windows 8 and most people buying pre-builts will just purchase whatever's readily available at the store. That doesn't make it a good product.

 

[Ticklefist]

Going back to Windows 98, MS has never released two well received operating systems consecutively for the home PC. They're the Star Trek movies of operating systems.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Considering that actual PC and Windows tablet sales have supposedly been pretty dismal, does anyone else find this a bit peculiar?

Not really, Microsoft's major sales come from OE contracts rather than retail customers, so they will have had this first year and x-million units shipped before the Windows 8 even came out. For OE sales they offer the current model or nothing, incidentally this bit them in the arse when Vista came out and the world resoundingly answered 'XP please,'

Good point

But with contract sales comprising a large portion of that 100M & retail sales stagnating, sounds like they may be revisiting that Vista scenario in the near future

 

[Longstreet]

This is like Google claiming G+ is on par with Facebook and the likes on terms of accounts, while they got all those accounts by making it an automated thing for everyone with a Youtube / Gmail account.

All (if i am correct) of the tablets from MS comes with Windows 8 and a lot of the new PCs comes with Windows 8 standard.

 

[neppakyo]

Everyone I know who got a new laptop/pc with win8 on it doesn't like. A few put win7 back on, couple did the hack to get the win7 desktop, and the rest force themselves to use it as they dont have a copy of win7 (dont want to spend extra money).

With just the people I know, and no one liking win8, it's not looking good for MS.

Imagine if the new xbox dashboard is actually the GUI from win8? How'd everyone like that? heh.

 

[GAunderrated]

Bragging about sales that they forced on the average consumer.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

This is more due to the fact that windoes 8 computers, laptops, and OS is inexplicably cheaper than windows 7 than the quality of windows 8

 

[Legion]

As well as what others have mentioned in regards to it being pre-installed in most modern computers and many tablets, it is also the primary OS for Nokia smartphones, and the average person buying a phone is unlikely to really think about their purchases in regards to the OS.

So really it's just because it is the primary OS of so many devices, rather than it being considered any good.

On another note, should it really be called "sales" when the people are not buying the OS itself, but the product that just happens to have it?

 

[snekadid]

Probably wouldn't have sold anywhere near that much if you could still buy pre-built PCs with Windows 7.

Everyone I know who uses it only has it because it came with the laptop they wanted, and they couldn't buy that laptop with Windows 7 installed.

^this

I bought a laptop recently for note taking(My mental disability is an inability to read my own handwriting XD)
and was FORCED(I think he had a gun behind the apron incase I pressed the point) to get it with windows 8 on it. I tried it honestly for a week before I couldn't stand how slow and user unfriendly it was, actively hiding utilities and options from me and forcing me to link all my internet accounts to my windows live account in order to use MY ACCOUNTS on MY COMPUTER.

"Downgrading" to windows 7 replaced bug fixing my mothers laptop(she had it for a year and never installed spyware/virus scanners and never ran any maintenance programs and downloaded garbageware) as the most horrible computer experience of my life. First, it wouldn't read the boot disk because it was set to load the OS before everything else, then it wouldn't let me get to the BIOS at start up so i had to go into a 6 tier menu to find the option to restart the computer and access the BIOS.

From there I changed the order but still could not run the boot disk because safety shell(a program whose sole purpose is to "prevent changes to windows 8") so I had to disable that and then the windows 7 boot disk... which then locked up because I did not turn on CSM which allowed you to install windows "Legacy OS" on the computer, from there it installed fine.... unfortunately I couldn't do anything with it because the computer had NO windows 7 compatible drivers.

This meant my internet didn't work, my bluetooth didn't work and my USB drives didn't work...... and HP had no drivers listed that supported windows 7, so I had to get on my main computer and find similar drivers for my network card that were win7 compatible, download them, burn them to a CD because there was no other way for my computer to access the outside world, and install them where I then had to find windows 7 counterparts for all the other drivers I was missing. It took 9 hours of bug fixing, looking up faqs and finding drivers that would work.

TL;DR Windows 8 is terrible and they know it's terrible. The whole experience felt more like they were fighting to keep me from using their better and less restrictive OS rather than trying to give me a good computing experience. It may work for tablets, but it's an insult on computers big and small.

 

[taciturnCandid]

I don't understand the hate for windows 8. I upgraded to it for free from my university and I've found really good performance.

My computer is a little more snappy and I have been able to run things at slightly higher settings than on 7. Unlike some people I really like the start screen and the charms. I've always thought that the start menu was retarded and used things like rainmeter to bypass it.

Things like upgraded task manager, better networking support, easier multi-screen support and the improved search tool has really helped. I use some of the apps, but not too many, but the smartglass is actually pretty nice for netflix and stuff.

Once you get used to keyboard shortcuts you don't need menus anyways.

 

[Slash2x]

This is like Google claiming G+ is on par with Facebook and the likes on terms of accounts, while they got all those accounts by making it an automated thing for everyone with a Youtube / Gmail account.

All (if i am correct) of the tablets from MS comes with Windows 8 and a lot of the new PCs comes with Windows 8 standard.

There it is

Yeah no one is buying this shit it is just on the crap they are purchasing. Show us the number of people who bought JUST Windows 8 and I bet we have Vista numbers.

MANY people are buying 8 systems and either loading 7 on them or moving to Ubuntu. Since 8 has released the number of Ubuntu users has SKYROCKETED.