100 Million Windows 8 licenses sold!


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Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer, Tami Reller, has just announced 100 million Windows 8 licenses sold.

We recently surpassed the 100 million licenses sold mark for Windows 8. This number includes Windows licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8. This is up from the 60 million license number we provided in January. We?ve also seen the number of certified devices for Windows 8 and Window RT grow to 2,400 devices, and we?re seeing more and more touch devices in the mix.

As we talked about in our last Q&A, Windows 8 is a big, ambitious change. While we realize that change takes time, we feel good about the progress since launch, including what we?ve been able to accomplish with the ecosystem and customer reaction to the new PCs and tablets that are available now or will soon come to market.

Reller also states that Microsoft is on course to deliver Windows "Blue" by the end of this year, and states that Windows 8's bold vision is still alive:

Windows Blue is a codename for an update that will be available later this year, building on the bold vision set forward with Windows 8 to deliver the next generation of tablets and PCs. It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play. The Windows Blue update is also an opportunity for us to respond to the customer feedback that we?ve been closely listening to since the launch of Windows 8 and Windows RT. From a company-wide perspective, Windows Blue is part of a broader effort to advance our devices and services for Microsoft.

More here from Q&A with Brandon LeBlanc and Tami Reller: http://blogs.windows...ami-reller.aspx

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good stuff :) nice to see its selling and like Avi Patel said BRING ON windows blue ! :D

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This number includes Windows 8 pre-installed on pre-configured systems for mass sale. Since there is no way to see how many of those are downgraded to a previous version or how many were not wanted in the first place this number is completely meaningless. The number that I'd find most interesting would be: how many people didn't have Windows 8, wanted it, and went out and bought it. I'm sure it's large, don't get me wrong, but this number quoted here is useless.

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This number includes Windows 8 pre-installed on pre-configured systems for mass sale. Since there is no way to see how many of those are downgraded to a previous version or how many were not wanted in the first place this number is completely meaningless. The number that I'd find most interesting would be: how many people didn't have Windows 8, wanted it, and went out and bought it. I'm sure it's large, don't get me wrong, but this number quoted here is useless.

But that's how Microsoft has always done it. They've never split upgrades, OEM, retail sales before, or at least afaik.

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Is that good? (I'm honestly wondering, this is not a rhetorical question)

Its about the same as Windows 7 sold (so yeah its pretty good :) )

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But...but...8 is a disaster... everyone hates it.... death of Microsoft...

Oh who am I kidding!

**** YEAH! One day the haters will admit how horribly wrong they were.

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Its about the same as Windows 7 sold (so yeah its pretty good :) )

What is really differing (8 vs. 7) is that - for the first time in a long time, if not ever, upgrades are outstripping OEM and new-license sales. In addition, Windows 8 has a *green* (no packaging) upgrade option that Windows 7 lacked. And all those additional metrics (more upgrades, lower OEM sales, non-packaged sales) are muddying the waters for the punditocracy. Still, the biggest shocker was the United States government (which typically trails when it comes to Windows) is jumping in with both feet - and especially the military. As I said in the comment section on the front page article, so much for logic.

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Lets not forget OEM licences... that is proabibly the majority of all the 100 000 000 lics that have been sold. These numbers say nothing about customer satisfaction by the way!

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I'm so glad consumers realized what a great operating system Windows 8 is. It is, in fact, one of my favorite products from Microsoft so far. Amazing performance and rock-solid stability alone make it the best Windows release as of today.

This number includes Windows 8 pre-installed on pre-configured systems for mass sale. Since there is no way to see how many of those are downgraded to a previous version or how many were not wanted in the first place this number is completely meaningless. The number that I'd find most interesting would be: how many people didn't have Windows 8, wanted it, and went out and bought it. I'm sure it's large, don't get me wrong, but this number quoted here is useless.

I got some news for ya: Microsoft couldn't care less. Those are sold licenses, doesn't matter if the user downgraded to Windows 7 (highly unlikely as normal people don't see a reason to do so, many don't even know it can be done or how), let alone a Linux distro.

No matter how you twist it, Windows 8 joining 7 as the fastest selling OS of of all time is extremely good news given the declining PC market and strong competition from Apple and Android (2009 was a far different landscape).

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Shame he didn't talk about how many were uninstalled, and how many were never installed to begin with.

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Even without this bit of info, though it's telling, MS gave you all the info you needed to know in it's quarterly financial report. The fact the traditional PC market saw a large 13% drop yet MS's Windows division revenue didn't take a hit should tell you that Windows 8 on tablets and hybrid devices IS selling. Also the Surface brand is under the Windows division as well IIRC, so the sales from that also helped.

In the end a license sale is a license sale, MS doesn't much care from a bottom line point of view if it's for Windows 7or Windows 8 at this point. One thing to note is that once we get the newer 7-8" devices that Windows 8/8.1 (probably still counted as Windows 8 by MS I bet) will see another big pop in it's sales when that would only happen every ~3 years or so with a new version of Windows. This new and quicker release cycle changes things quite a bit.

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Yup, we have a few hundred licenses for Win8 so far....but we are not using them. We are instead downgrading to Win7.

I wonder how many Start8 licenses have been sold?

I think a few months ago, there were about 5-6 million start menu replacement programs that were bought. I would imagine that number has increased since.

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Shame he didn't talk about how many were uninstalled, and how many were never installed to begin with.

I was thinking the same thing. It'd be interesting to get stats about how many unique systems are checking into windows update each day.

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Wow that article is so full of crap it's hilarious.

- Windows dirt cheap edition? You could buy 3 copies of Windows 7 for $150 (or $50 each). The upgrade for people who purchased Vista computers just before 7 launched was FREE (with win 8 it was $15). And if you lived in the US you could have gotten the ultimate edition for free through house party (I and many others did).

- I believe some articles are reporting that Win 8 sales have kept pace with Win 7 sales 6 months in...so if Windows 8 100 million is NOTHING, then so was Windows 7 100 million.

- He then goes on to compare iPads to Windows 8. And says oh look Apple makes more money from iPads than Microsoft does with Windows 8. Well no ****ing **** genius you're talking about a device that costs $400+ to a copy of Windows that's a lot cheaper than that.

- Oh but wait that's not it either! He then goes on to compare it to Mac sales. Yes let's compare how much money Apple made from selling Macs with OSX installed to a piece of software. So desktops/laptops that start at $1000 to software that starts at $40-200. Pure genius comparison there.

Seriously that article just takes the cake...and in honor of it I'm going to make my own comparison too:

Boeing makes more money selling planes than Toyota does selling the corolla. Now some people may say this is an apples to oranges comparison but it really isn't because the plane will eventually replace cars. Hence by my own genius logic the corolla is a ****ing terrible car and it's sales numbers mean absolutely nothing.

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This number includes Windows 8 pre-installed on pre-configured systems for mass sale. Since there is no way to see how many of those are downgraded to a previous version or how many were not wanted in the first place this number is completely meaningless. The number that I'd find most interesting would be: how many people didn't have Windows 8, wanted it, and went out and bought it. I'm sure it's large, don't get me wrong, but this number quoted here is useless.

Microsoft doesn't care. It's counts toward Windows 8 sales for them.

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Shame he didn't talk about how many were uninstalled, and how many were never installed to begin with.

Guess who didn't buy Win 8 .... :p

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It's so sad to see people still try to spin this in something bad.

100 million licenses is good no matter how you look at it. It's selling at the same pace as Win7 and everybody accepted these figures without any hesitation.

Why all the demands for different figures now? Is it just because some don't like the OS that these figures must be a lie? Very sad.

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