Windows 8 outsells Windows 7

The Telegraph ^ | 28 Nov 2012 | Jennifer O'Mahony

[SmokingJoe]

Sales of the Windows 8 operating system, which was launched on October 26, were driven by upgrades rather than users purchasing the software on new machines, according to Reuters.

Microsoft sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses in two months, compare to 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in one month.

Tami Reller, finance and marketing head of Microsoft's Windows division, said yesterday: "Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7," speaking at an investor conference held by Credit Suisse.

Previous versions of Microsoft operating systems sold considerably fewer licenses than Windows 8 in a comparable period, with XP shipping 8 million units in the month following its launch in 2002, and Microsoft Vista selling around 10 million licenses in the first 30 days following its introduction in 2006.

In raw figures, Windows 8′s first month has been around twice as strong as for Windows Vista, and four times as strong as that of Windows XP

However, there is now a much higher volume of PC users worldwide than in 2001, and Windows 8′s upgrade price is far less than it has traditionally charged for new versions of Windows.

Upgrading to Windows 8 costs £43, compared to £88 for the full software package or £399 for the new Microsoft Surface tablet running Windows 8.

Many of the sales are to PC manufacturers, who in turn sell a large number of machines to companies, very few of which are using Windows 8 yet.

[Brookhaven]

There was very little reason to upgrade previous MS operating systems (heck, I'm still running XP on a couple of machines without problems).

Win-8 does give people a reason to upgrade, because it is part of Microsoft's "the same interface anywhere" strategy. Look at these three screen shots (Win-8, XBox, Windows-phone):

Anyone notice the similarities? You should, because they are exactly the same. Remember, the XBox (under the hood) is just a plain, old fashioned PC. Mine has recently been downloading a LOT of updates. I suspect the OS has been upgraded from the XP variant it used to use to a Win-8 variant.

MS now has 4 device families (PC, tablet, phone, and game console) running the same OS.

As a developer, I've been inundated with material from MS (to the point that it's becoming spamming) trying to get me to start writing apps for Win-8 (including offers for free training).

Microsoft's strategy seems to be "buy an app once, use it anywhere." Get an app for your phone, use it on your XBox (the kinect provides the "touchscreen"), your PC, or your tablet.

I'm not sure how this will work out, Microsoft's dominant position in game consoles gives them an advantage over their competition. The only question is: can they get their app store up to speed quickly enough to leverage their advantage?

[rarestia]

Win7 is Microsoft’s best OS to date. It’s on a stable kernel (Vista was not), runs 64-bit natively (XP and Vista were unstable at 64-bit), is fast and easy to administer (Vista was neither), and it will likely be the go-to OS for people for the next 10 years much like XP was.

My biggest gripe with Win8 is that Microsoft has essentially hijacked the UEFI boot kernel in the name of “security.” Anyone trying to install an OS over Win8 is going to find themselves banging their head against a wall, as the UEFI boot system will need to be flashed with a non-Win8 kernel to load anything other than Win8. Way to go, Redmond!

[ArGee]

Win-8 does give people a reason to upgrade, because it is part of Microsoft's "the same interface anywhere" strategy. Look at these three screen shots (Win-8, XBox, Windows-phone):

Cool. Since I don't own an XBox and can't imagine buying a phone that might blue-screen in the middle of a call, I won't have to worry about ever upgrading to W8.

[ArGee]

I'm thinking a Transformer Pad Infinity is in my future when my W7 Laptop is no longer useful.

[HomeAtLast]

Classic shell is but one option for simulating the old start screen. When I recently tried to get the hang of 8, I searched “alternatives to windows 8 start” and found half a dozen on some kind soul’s blog. All have shortcomings IMO. Also, the HP I had, offered in one of its built-in apps a rudimentary form of start screen you could download; it wasn’t pretty.

Another way to go about it would be to customize the desktop with the taskbar on the left side, stocked with every icon you’d ever think of using...or just put the shortcuts on the desktop. How many do you really use more than “rarely” anyway?

I’m back to Windows 7, since 8 took way too much time to get acquainted with, and also it seemed to enjoy reverting to default settings, like a trail pony looking for any reason to head back to the stable.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Do people really want their PCs “DUMBED DOWN” to an app mentality? Microsoft is gambling it is yes. If enough fuss is raised, then Microsoft might bring the classic start menu back for Windows 8.

[Chickensoup]

Yeah because it is bundled with every system, not because people want it. I went through that with Vista RIP.

[Brookhaven]

Over 1/2 of all game consoles are XBox machines (an installed base of about 70 million). There are about 114 million households in the US.

Their primary owners/users are young adults* (the exact same market base that is more likely to use a smart phone).

When these people go to purchase their next smart phone, will the sales pitch “this will interface seamlessly with your XBox” appeal to them? For a lot of them it will.

The fact that YOU don’t own one, doesn’t mean it still isn’t going to be an advantage for MS.

[rarestia]

It’s unfortunate, to me, that we’re migrating away from desktops. I understand the want for mobile devices, but it will be at least 10 years before we see mobile devices at speeds and performance benchmarks anywhere close to what a custom-built, liquid-cooled tower can accomplish today. Then you also have the HTPC (Home Theater PC) market that’s been growing slowly and has recently had a mini-boom thanks to custom case manufacturers and product compatibilities settling on HDMI.

I like the idea of mobile devices, but I’m still very much a desktop enthusiast at heart. I’d rather play my games on a 32” TV than have the option to move around with a 9” tablet.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Agreed. Those of us raised on a command line (DOS, UNIX, etc.) find this emulation of the icons on a iPhone silly. But it is the prevailing paradigm for interfaces in the present market. I switched it off and went to the classic desktop immediately. I will still curse the dumbing down of computers, but it is what it is.

Having some problems with 32-bit programs that you would think wouldn’t be a problem (e.g., Adobe Acrobat Pro 9.5.2 - suggested solution - upgrade.)

[ArGee]

The fact that YOU don’t own one, doesn’t mean it still isn’t going to be an advantage for MS.

Oh, I get that. I was celebrating the fact that Microsoft had not sucked me into its empire, not that the empire didn't benefit Microsoft.

[rarestia]

Microsoft is trying to be like Apple with the annual OS deployments. Microsoft’s problem is its market. Apple’s OS is generally mated to proprietary hardware, thus the OS can be streamlined. Since Microsoft’s market share consists of PCs of every stripe, deploying a new OS every year is not only foolish but could be financially disastrous to them. They should focus on maintaining and securing their existing popular OS, Win7, and stop worrying about what Apple is doing.

[ArGee]

It’s unfortunate, to me, that we’re migrating away from desktops.

I'm not a gamer, so I read your post as if you were saying, "It's unfortunate, to me, that we're migrating away from superjumbo jets."

People have needs and the market is meeting those needs. Servers will always be in boxes and may have liquid cooling. Cloud systems will require SANs and hot-swappable processors. But most of us need the ability to read useful information, write documents, create presentations, and manipulate spreadsheets.

A transformable tablet just seems to be the way to go. And my wife will like anything that keeps her from constantly being prompted by various applications to perform an update. Since she doesn't need the portability, I'll probably go with at Chromebook for her.

[Brookhaven]

Microsoft’s old operating system strategy was withering away. People are less and less interested in having a dedicated device that does everything locally and stores everything locally (and has to be backed-up and maintained locally).

With the growth of “the cloud” (which is just a fancy name for remote date storage and access) devices and their applications are becoming thinner.

And, after all, what is an app? Microsoft Office is really just an app. Apps can be as simple as a game, or as complicated (and large) as an office suite.

An app is just a different approach to accessing an application.

[Jonty30]

The ultimate benefit for the consumer is to allow the consumer to be able to move from one machine to another and keep doing whatever it is they are doing, whether it be productivity or leisure.

The reason for those colourful tiles, which I do agree that they can be off-putting to those not used to them, is to allow the user to check for updates on whichever programs he has on his computer without having to actually open any programs to check. So, for example, you could check for stock market updates or news updates without having to click on the apps responsible for these two functions.

[Jonty30]

The OS companies are preparing for the day when you’re cellphone is your only computer. You would just dock it in whatever station, desktop, laptop, or tablet is appropriate for your required situation.

Right now, it is my understanding that the higher end cell phones have about the same computing power as desktops in 2004, or so. It’s just that its form factor is inadequate to do the same things that a desktop could do in 2004.

[backwoods-engineer]

I don't care if it outsells ice water in hell. I will not buy it, and I will not support any computer in my extended family that has it. My son has a Mac - he knows he is on his own.

By 2015, we will probably be an all-Linux/Android household.

[longtermmemmory]

unfortunatly people do not realize that cloud computing has ZERO confidentiality or privacy. Thus those doctors or lawyers who use “cloud computing” have exposed your personal data.

Also people don’t realized that after 180 days NO SUBPOENA is needed for any police agency to snoop your personal information.

Something to think about when you hire that big law firm or go to your doctor.

(now will come in the “I walk on water and am holier than thou” posters)

[Jonty30]

I agree with you here. I like where Microsoft is heading, but I do not like cloud computing one bit. The only safe data is the data nobody has physical access to. It doesn’t matter how long your encryption may be if somebody has your data, they will eventually be able to access it.

[Syntyr]

“How many milli-seconds can you use it before the error message pops up and it locks up?”

I still am running the same install of Windows Vista that I started with in 2008.

From power button press to usable desktop = 21 seconds
Last reboot - almost 3 months ago.
Last Virus infection - never
Currently running in memory - 5 IE sessions, 1 Excel 2010, 1 Access 2010, 1 session of Visio, 1 session of Mini Ninjas and 1 COD4.

Home built Intel Q6600 quad core, 4 gig of ram, GeForce 8800 GTI video card. It was a hefty PC when I built it but not crazy specs. Thing is I watch where I browse and don’t continually screw with it and install crapware.

However, I have had to fix pc’s with more tool bars in IE than browser space so I know they get crapped up. As with anything YMMV and to each his own.