Microsoft only sold 1/3 of internal sales projections of Windows

[Azies]

Ouch, it's a shame too, Windows 8 isn't that bad of an OS.

[The King of GnG]

So there's hope for a desktop-only version of Windows 9. I would buy that. Windows 8? Never.

[AJerman]

Another day on Neowin, another Windows 8 defense thread. This is getting really old. Last I heard the Win 8 defenders were claiming it's sales were amazing and anything or anyone that said otherwise was lying, so what's the point in this thread?

[PGHammer]

Another day on Neowin, another Windows 8 defense thread. This is getting really old. Last I heard the Win 8 defenders were claiming it's sales were amazing and anything or anyone that said otherwise was lying, so what's the point in this thread?

The folks jumping on Windows 8 sales because they aren't as good as those for Windows 7.

I, for one, didn't expect sales (especially in terms of new hardware) to be as good for 8 as they were for 7 (the retraining costs alone pretty much made that a certainty in terms of the business/enterprise area). The fact that there's little to no real reason to upgrade your hardware (if you are running Vista or 7 today) to run 8 is another factor dampening new hardware sales. In a way, upgrade sales are taking the place of new-hardware sales where Windows 8 is concerned.

The OS is not the driver to upgrade hardware any more.

Another day on Neowin, another Windows 8 defense thread. This is getting really old. Last I heard the Win 8 defenders were claiming it's sales were amazing and anything or anyone that said otherwise was lying, so what's the point in this thread?

More like another day, another person looking for something (anything) to spin into a Windows 8 bashfest.

[Malisk]

It's just so convenient claiming the economy is the reason why Windows 8 is well bellow projections...

It's times like these that you really need to compare to how the rest of the industry is doing.

The economy isn't singling out software or hardware.

[vcfan]

I think some of you are blind, or failed to read.

I said, Microsoft projected windows 7 to sell 177 million in 2 months and a bit,but they only sold 1/3 of that,which was 60 million. Eventually windows 7 went on to sell 700+ million. Their projections totally bombed.

So now, theres a rumor from Paul Thurott that windows 8 sold below Microsoft projections, and we have all the haters coming out of the woodwork to claim that sales are low,or that windows 8 isn't selling, flop,etc... or whatever.

My point being that sales projections don't mean much without actual numbers. What if Microsoft expected to sell 150 million and only sold 60 million in one month. We don't know.

[dr_crabman]

I think some of you are blind, or failed to read.

Yeah, after reading the opening post and then some of the comments I got really confused. Guess you were too subtle but the reactions are very telling, Neowin at it's worst.

[benthebear]

It's times like these that you really need to compare to how the rest of the industry is doing.

The economy isn't singling out software or hardware.

Apple and Samsung must be the exception then.

[Deviate_X]

In fact, can anyone name a version of Windows that released in an economy even close to being this bad?

Windows 2000 and Windows XP were both released bad economies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2000s_recession

[RudeBoi]

I'm curious how many new PCs will be returned this holiday season because of the new Windows 8 UI. If people return them in their droves, then Microsoft and oems could have a real problem.

[MorganX]

Windows 7 sold because it's a desktop os which people want and is what windows tradtionally was.

Windows 8 is a tablet OS, and people just arent crazy about it. Thats the reality of it.

Microsoft lost their gamble, and ****ed off many loyal customers that wanted a desktop OS.

But people do want it. Bad. MS has to deal with the Desktop environment for legacy. They can't abandon it, though I'm sure they'd like to. It would be easier. The Pro should do quite well as a laptop alternative.

The real problem? Take the great Surface ads, well made, quite colorful, but what are they selling? The hardware, the clicking keyboard. They don't show the people actually doing anything that says, I gotta have one of these. MS themselves could have ported all MS Studios XBLA games. I'd be going nuts for Lode Runner or Geometry wars on my Surface. Didn't happen. They didn't even get Minesweeper and Solitaire over let alone anything else. There isn't even Angry Birds regular. There's the costly Star Wars and Space versions. But what where's the de facto, obligatory Angry Birds everyone is used to?

Another great ad for Windows 8, the express yourself add using the sanitized cover of NWA's express yourself. Love it. What are they selling? Fresh Paint? Great app but, total paradigm shift, cutting edge hardware, MS is finally getting it right in the tablet space, and your big time TV ads are selling the type cover click and Fresh Paint? No one else sees that as an indication Microsoft just doesn't have it together internally right now?

Office 2013 isn't even a Modern App. And it's so good, one would have to ask, why should it be? And we're back to, why do I need Windows 8 again? Oh, for a tablet for which there are not compelling apps yet. It think because Tablets use applets, MS just doesn't want to bother helping small devs with small profits, deliver high quality apps. Mistake IMO. The dev of my #1 app, a health and fitness app, is porting to Surface and WP8, but they told me it will take months. Well, I'm back to iPad just for that app until then. I would go back to my iPhone but it was stolen from the gym yesterday. So I'm stuck having to go to the Lumia 920, while nice, no app.

Nothing wrong with the hardware or Windows 8. There's something wrong with the apps and/or lack thereof, and to me, Microsoft just seems out of touch with this new generation of digital consumers, out of touch with it's own internal team members, and lacking clear leadership.

Regarding the desktop environment, you do know Explorer is just a shell app in Win 7? So clicking the desktop tile isn't really that big of a deal and apps run a tad bit better. The only thing missing is the Start Menu, and yeah, I prefer it to pinning and going to the Start Page, and Start Menu search beats Win 8 search hands down. But the performance and stability are so good, I deal with it.

Cloud sync is great between desktop and Surface, and Metro Apps can use it as well. The desktop environment is actually the most polished part of Windows 8.

It's funny, for desktop only users, I highly recommend the upgrade. For those going for Tablets, I actually do not. Not consumers. They have to get more apps and get the whole Music App and ecosystem fixed and finished.

Technical people should not hesitate though, at least that's how I see it.

[abysal]

Say it ain't so :*(

[MorganX]

I'm curious how many new PCs will be returned this holiday season because of the new Windows 8 UI. If people return them in their droves, then Microsoft and oems could have a real problem.

The same number that got returned previous years for having a desktop full of crapware garbage, None. There will be returns, but not because of the Windows 8 UI, particularly touch screens. None of them are coming back for that reason.

[vcfan]

whats funny is that the windows 8 **** talkers thought the post was about windows 8 and then patted themselves on the back thinking this confirms their beliefs that windows 8 is failing because they missed Microsofts sales projections.

Then on page 3 in this thread, they realized that those figures were for Windows 7.

using some peoples logic, Windows 7 selling only a 1/3 initially of what Microsoft predicted must have meant that Windows 7 was going to be the biggest flop of all time.

[PGHammer]

whats funny is that the windows 8 **** talkers thought the post was about windows 8 and then patted themselves on the back thinking this confirms their beliefs that windows 8 is failing because they missed Microsofts sales projections.

Then on page 3 in this thread, they realized that those figures were for Windows 7.

using some peoples logic, Windows 7 selling only a 1/3 initially of what Microsoft predicted must have meant that Windows 7 was going to be the biggest flop of all time.

Which, as it turns out, was anything BUT the case.

Reminds me of the exact same criticism for Windows Vista (widely panned, and far slower selling than XP, but went on to actually surpass XP's sales number outside of corporate users and enterprises - it was Vista, not XP, that 7 beat to become America's Consumer OS).

[George P Global Moderator]

As has been said, without numbers we don't know anything. The only number we do have is the 4 million upgrades sold in 3 days. That initial number, being only for upgrades and not new hardware sales, shows success IMO. Until we get new numbers all anyone is doing is speculating.

[Shane Nokes]

As has been said, without numbers we don't know anything. The only number we do have is the 4 million upgrades sold in 3 days. That initial number, being only for upgrades and not new hardware sales, shows success IMO. Until we get new numbers all anyone is doing is speculating.

Just to point out, that number definitely shows initial success. 4 million sales that quickly = about 11 sales per second. It took Windows 7 almost a year to hit that mark.

[Luis Mazza]

whats funny is that the windows 8 **** talkers thought the post was about windows 8 and then patted themselves on the back thinking this confirms their beliefs that windows 8 is failing because they missed Microsofts sales projections.

Then on page 3 in this thread, they realized that those figures were for Windows 7.

using some peoples logic, Windows 7 selling only a 1/3 initially of what Microsoft predicted must have meant that Windows 7 was going to be the biggest flop of all time.

That's your fault... Beginning with the title, the article is poorly written and confusing. :/

[Shane Nokes]

That's your fault... Beginning with the title, the article is poorly written and confusing. :/

Indeed...very confusing...especially the part where it says:

According to Bill Veghte of Microsoft, Microsoft projected to sell 177 Million copies of Windows.....7 at the end of the year 2009. Windows 7 was released October 22, 2009. So how many copies did Microsoft sell by the end of 2009?

60 million. That's almost 1/3 of their projections. And how much did Windows 7 eventually sell? 700 mill

The numbers 7 and 8...right next to each other in order..so easy to mix up when reading. ;)

I totally thought this whole thing was about 8...couldn't tell it was about 7 at all...

:p

[zhangm Supervisor]

That's your fault... Beginning with the title, the article is poorly written and confusing. :/

It says Windows 7 in the first sentence. And second. And fifth. This is not exactly heavy reading.

[Luis Mazza]

Indeed...very confusing...especially the part where it says:

The numbers 7 and 8...right next to each other in order..so easy to mix up when reading. ;)

I totally thought this whole thing was about 8...couldn't tell it was about 7 at all...

:p

The title misleads everyone into thinking this is about Windows 8. It obviously has information about Windows 7.

But... I'm not talking about this. I'm complaining about the title and saying that it is poorly written and obviously it is, that's why so many people got confused over this.

You can see that you actually didn't exactly read what I wrote, but in this case, it was not poorly written because that's only one simple critic, not a whole article talking about numbers and projections that are pretty vague.

It says Windows 7 in the first sentence. And second. And fifth. This is not exactly heavy reading.

Seems I have to another mislead complainer here...

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

Yeah. The OP obviously set it up so that people would come into this thread thinking they'd read about (disappointing) sales figures of the current Windows version (8), otherwise he would have included the version number in the title. It was clearly his intention to mislead in order to make a point. The point being that disappointing early sales, or at least not meeting your early sales target doesn't necessarily mean longtime failure (duh!).

Seems to have slightly misfired on him though.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Seems I have to another mislead complainer here...

Of course. :rolleyes:

[Shane Nokes]

The title misleads everyone into thinking this is about Windows 8. It obviously has information about Windows 7.

It does? I don't see a number listed in the title...and since it is mentioning that they only hit 1/3 of projected sales I would assume it is related to the longer released OS.

I knew it was about 7 just from the title since they wouldn't know if they hit or missed any sales projections yet since those are handled on a quarterly basis...and the quarter isn't anywhere near over yet...

Then again...that's just common sense talking...

Yeah. The OP obviously set it up so that people would come into this thread thinking they'd read about (disappointing) sales figures of the current Windows version (8), otherwise he would have included the version number in the title. It was clearly his intention to mislead in order to make a point. The point being that disappointing early sales, or at least not meeting your early sales target doesn't necessarily mean longtime failure (duh!).

Seems to have slightly misfired on him though.

As I mentioned just above...sales projections are based on the quarter...in other words 3 months. A month in they won't know if they hit their quarterly projections or not...so I knew it was about 7 from the title...

[(Account no longer active)]

To Microsoft, have you ever heard of common sense? Tell me, why should I upgrade when my computer does everything I want it to right now? I can see why you would want to go from 98 to XP, but 7 to 8 - there's not much point (unless you absolutely want Metro). I only use desktop PCs - I find tablets to slow to work with.