CES 2008: Windows Vista Numbers Sit Between 100 and 150 Million

Windows Vista numbers sit between 100 and 150 million. Microsoft has drawn the line on the market performance of Windows Vista in 2007, courtesy of Chairman Bill Gates. The 2008 International CES event was kicked off Sunday in Las Vegas with a keynote featuring Gates, and a small portion of the event was reserved for Vista. Microsoft's latest Windows client was released to manufacturing in early November 2006, just in time to ship to businesses by the end of the same month. It was not until January 30, 2007 that Vista hit the shelves, missing the 2006 holiday shopping frenzy and being launched to general consumers in a period synonymous with lagging sales.

Adding to this the mixed reviews that accompanied Vista to the market, it's surprising that the operating system got off the ground the way it did, selling over 20 million copies in just the first month. In all fairness, the Vista Wow was powered by an estimated $500 million marketing campaign, and according to statistics released by Microsoft throughout 2007, the platform went on to sell 40 million by day 100, 60 million by mid 2007 and 88 million at the end of October.

At CES 2008, Gates revealed that Microsoft had sold over 100 million licenses of Windows Vista in the past year. Gates indicated that the figure was illustrative of the Vista copies sold via the retail and original equipment manufacturers. The Redmond company also confirmed the selling of over 42 million licenses of the platform through Volume License agreements. This means that Vista numbers worldwide sit somewhere between 100 and 150 million.

The fact that Vista passed the 100 million sold licenses milestone was confirmed by the statistics provided by Net Applications that, at the end of January, credited the operating system with a market share of 10.48%. "For more than 25 years, Windows has unlocked the power of personal computing", Gates stated. "Now we are expanding Windows to go where you want to go and do what you want to do on PCs, the Web and mobile devices. The result is connected experiences that extend across people's lives, interests and communities, at home and at work."