Microsoft

Windows Vista Brings the First Dollars to Daddy

But is it real money?

By Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor

27th of March 2007, 13:20 GMT

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The money is real all right, and indeed corresponds to in excess of 20 million sold Windows Vista licenses worldwide. But is there a side to this story that Microsoft isn't telling? Some analysts

claim that there is. Let's simply read between the lines of the 20 million Vista licenses sold worldwide in the first month of availability.

There is a paragraph in Microsoft's press release announcing Vista's strong debut that goes something in the line of: "The more than 20 million copies shipped represent Windows Vista licenses sold to PC manufacturers, copies of upgrades and the full packaged product sold to retailers and upgrades ordered through the Windows Vista Express Upgrade program from January 30 to February 28," Microsoft revealed.

This has allowed Microsoft to applaud the fact that Windows Vista has outperformed Windows XP selling more than double the number of licenses in the first month of general availability. XP only sold 7 million licenses in the first month since the launch and 17 million in the first two months. But have the 20 million sold licenses put forward by Microsoft actually made their way into the consumer's households? Analysts are skeptical in this respect. "Clearly there haven't been 20 million PCs sold worldwide since Jan. 30, and we're really only talking about February," said Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis.

Reading between the lines means focusing on details such as Windows Vista licenses sold to PC manufacturers. What does this mean? It means that there's a good chance that the copies sold to OEMs are still sitting somewhere on a shelve. Additionally, critics have focused on the fact that Windows Vista was made available for businesses since November 30, 2006, which would account for a timeframe of four months and not just two. However, Microsoft does state that the 20 million count included only licenses sold between January 30 to February 28 2007.

Or doesn't it? Reading between the lines again we come across "upgrades ordered through the Windows Vista Express Upgrade program", actually what I am saying is actually reading the very lines! Hmm... Microsoft deferred no less than $1.1 billion in the third quarter of 2006 in order to fuel the Express Upgrade program. Via this initiative, customers that acquired a PC preloaded with Windows XP in 2006, automatically qualified for a free or inexpensive upgrade to Windows Vista once the operating system would be made available. Such customers that ordered their Vista upgrades were also counted in the 20 million sold licenses.

"Initial sales figures from Microsoft show its new operating system Windows Vista made a splash in its debut," Microsoft claims. But I can't shake out of my head the pictures from the official Windows Vista launch presided by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a New York Best Buy store. In the pictures taken at that location are a lot of Microsoft and Best Buy personnel and a lot of press but not that many customers...

TAGS:

Windows Vista | sales

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