Posted on 02/14/2014 10:53:20 AM PST by ShadowAce
Microsoft claims it has now sold more than 200 million Windows 8 licenses, in the first update to public sales claims it has offered since last May.
Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco on Thursday, Microsoft executive VP of marketing Tami Reller described the sales growth as "pretty stunning," although she added that Redmond has more work yet to do.
When Reller last spoke on Windows 8 sales, she said that Microsoft had sold 100 million licenses in the product's first six months of availability, which she said was on par with the sales figures for Windows 7.
But that was nine months ago, and the fact that only another 100 million licenses have moved since then indicates that sales of Windows 8 have indeed slowed, as many analysts have suspected.
Not that Microsoft's earlier sales claim meant there were 100 million people running Windows 8 on their PCs. A good chunk of those licenses were sold to hardware OEMs for use on devices that hadn't even been built yet, let alone shipped.
Back-of-napkin estimates suggest that the actual number of Windows 8 devices in use is about 40 per cent lower than the number of licenses Microsoft claims to have sold.
Reller made no comparison to Windows 7 sales in her Thursday comments, either, and with good reason. Microsoft managed to sell 240 million licenses for that OS in its first year – 20 per cent more than the number of Windows 8 licenses that have shipped at the 16-month mark.
Much of the blame for Windows 8's slower growth can be placed on the downturn in the PC market. And yet Windows 8 was designed to work on more types of devices than Windows 7 was – most notably tablets, which are reportedly selling like hotcakes.
In the past, Microsoft has tried to argue that if Windows 8 tablets weren't moving as fast as their Android and iOS cousins, it was the hardware makers' own fault. Industry insiders told The Reg that the software giant scolded OEMs for not building enough high-end tablets and Ultrabooks to show off Windows 8's features.
Redmond now seems to have reconsidered that stance, however. Reller told the audience at the Goldman Sachs conference that "right sizing" Windows so that it can run on devices with more modest specs is one of Microsoft's top objectives.
Another is getting more software written for Windows 8, she said.
"Bringing developers onto the platform, getting apps into the store, it couldn't possibly be a higher priority," Reller explained. "The number one priority of our developer team is to really get those apps populated."
Even given those efforts, however, it will likely be a long time before Windows 8's market share surpasses that of earlier versions. According to current figures from Net Applications, Windows 7 still commands more than 47 per cent of the desktop OS market, compared to Windows 8's roughly 11 per cent.
And nearly a third of all PCs are reportedly still running Windows XP, even though Microsoft plans to end support for that version in April. If those customers have held out this long, convincing them to upgrade to Windows 8 – and not Android, iOS, OS X, Linux, or even Windows 7 – will be a tall order. ®
8 sucks big time. Wouldn’t have it if it wasn’t on a new laptop.
Bleh.
I’d.put the blame on a shitty user interface causing slow growth. No compelling reason to upgrade.
So change it out.
I just had 2 computers built with Win 7 on them and another computer refurbished and Win 7 installed instead of XP.
Windows 8 is windows 7 with improvements. Get classic shell for free to make it look like win 7.
Anyone who can use windows can use win 8.
Yes, it came on a new laptop but has fit in well.
I am so damned sick and tired of operating system companies and other oft-used applications infiltrating other program companies with add-ons into their updates with superfluous sh!t I don’t want.
Adobe always wants to load Google Chrome and other google cap that screws up one-clip pullup of other progams. Each time I forget and let it load updates, I have to go back to MS to find a scrub/erase ap to get rid of it.
Frankly, what I could give a sh!t less about is some human factors/programming weenie in Seattle/Palo Alto/San Francisco sipping on a MochaChocoLotta $20 cup of frappaqueero coffee while working on his new ‘usabilty’ improvement interface about what I obviously need.
Once I’ve learned it, I don’t need more confusion and Facebook, Twitter or other needless crap; I just want to do what I do with something I know and am comfortable with.
How frigging hard is this to understand? Geez....
The start button was added back in 8.1, which is a free upgrade. anyone using windows 8 should be using 8.1
Which represents 199.9 million new hardware devices which came with Win8 preinstalled, with no other option offered to the consumer.
The difference is, Windows 7 was a slightly improved version of XP which was itself very good, and it didn’t suck.
I have 8.1 - installed in back when it was offered in October (I think) - but no start button.
After I wrote last reply, I checked what happens when I click on the 4 panes in the corner of the taskbar where the start button always was. It takes me to the tile screen, says START, and then goes to the installed “apps”. I guess that is always what a start button always did but didn’t seem the same.
Heck, I used win98 until stuff quit working.
I’ll do the same with XP.
My 6 yeard old laptop has Vista Home Pro...it’s slowly dying.
I will keep it till it dies.
I HATE how they boast about such things when they release a new POS Operating System. I'd bet a small fraction of those "sold licenses" were by customers actually wanting to run that OS. It just comes pre-installed by the PC manufacturers(like having new cars with completely undesirable tires), and I'm sure a vast majority of end users even know what an operating system is, let alone knowing another one such as Linux can be installed. I bought a new HP Laptop for my wife, and it had a Windows 8 license with downgrade(their words lol) rights to have it pre-installed with Win7 Professional, so technically I "purchased" a Windows 8 license, and it will never EVER run on that Laptop. Had it not been for the option of having it come with Win7, I wouldn't have bought it. If given an informed choice, I'm certain that your average end user would be much much more satisfied and comfrotable with one of the 'mainstream' Linux operating systems over Windows 8.
Windows 8 has to be at least part of the reason PC sales are in the toilet. The OEMs would be FAR better served to not be joined at the hip with Microsoft!
“Microsoft claims it has now sold more than 200 million Windows 8 licenses”
Very very few people would purchase Win 8 if it wasn’t on an OEM device.
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