Despite frequent reports of Windows Vista being a failure, Microsoft Corporation has now shipped 88 million copies of its latest operating system, almost double the number of copies of XP in the same amount of time at its launch. CFO Chris Liddell credited strong sales in emerging markets, due in part to anti-piracy and legalization programs there. Microsoft had previously said that it had shipped 20 million copies of Vista in its first month, 40 million copies of Vista in the first 100 days, and 60 million in late July.
Three-quarters of the copies sold of Vista were Home Premium editions. The 88 million figure mostly includes Vista-installed PCs bought by consumers and small businesses, as well as packaged copies of Vista sold in stores or online. It does exclude the tens of millions of Windows corporate volume licenses. There, many enterprises continue to hold off on deploying Vista, acknowledged CFO Chris Liddell, though he expects them to start deploying it when Vista Service Pack 1 arrives in the first quarter of next year. Nevertheless, revenue from companies renewing their volume licenses for Windows, which gives them the right to upgrade to Vista, was up 27%.
News source: PC World
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