14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, present on stage at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2007 in Los Angeles on May 15, revealed that Windows Vista had sold approximately 40 million licenses worldwide. In this context, Microsoft managed to deliver on the initial promise that it would outsell Windows XP with Windows Vista by more than double. Gates talked about in excess of 3,000 broadcast and print marketing campaigns for Vista, the Wow was advertised on 20 markets across the world, and the fact that the operating system hit the shelves of 39,000 stores worldwide at the launch. And yet these figures do not correlate in any manner with the projected volume of international PC shipments.
John Ball, general manager of Microsoft's U.S. Systems Group mentioned to Mary Jo Foley that no less than 99% of all the machines preloaded with the Windows platform around the world come with Windows Vista. Out of all the Vista editions, customers seem to prefer Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. Still, analyst firm Gartner opined that Windows Vista and the Wow have failed to produce a "killer application" to drive the growth of PC shipments. "Manufacturers are leveraging emerging markets to boost global PC sales in 2007. Worldwide PC shipments are projected to total 257.1 million units in 2007, an 11.1% increase from 2006 shipments of 231.5 million units," Gartner stated.
Microsoft data claims that Windows Vista is selling. Gartner's perspective is that Vista is not pushing PC shipments, and that the only conclusion is that, despite the fact that the latest operating system from Microsoft was initially associated with inherent hardware upgrades, and even the need for new PCs, Vista preloaded machines are not appealing in any way to customers. This is of course not good news for Microsoft, as the company has spent quite a lot on supporting the PC market, in addition to the $500 million Wow, especially for the "deferral of $1.64 billion of revenue and operating income, $1.13 billion of net income and $0.11 of diluted earnings per share from the second to the third fiscal quarter, due primarily to the technology guarantee programs that were announced on October 24, 2006 for Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office release."