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Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
- nsns 14y agoWhich might simply mean that this is the approximate amount of non-Apple laptops (and desktops?) sold since Win8's launch, because most of them are now sold only with Win8 licenses [0]. Hardly a mark of success, but of MS's (doomed?) pervasiveness. [0] e.g., http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=0E6E3D0084869C3EB4172DA2F965A301 http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPo...
- brudgers 14y ago"Microsoft had not released any sales figures for Windows 8 other than saying the company sold 4 million upgrade licenses of the operating system to those with previous versions of Windows during the first three days it was available." That's 10% of the total in the first three days to existing users. Including myself.
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- dkhenry 14y agoIf a month has 30 days then that's also 10% of the time period, or another way of saying it is that sales remained constant over that initial time frame.
- contextfree 14y agoYes. This, along with everything else that happens in the world anywhere ever, is clearly a sign that Microsoft is doomed.
- sliverstorm 14y agoWhat's that, Microsoft announced record profits? Uh-oh, that's a sign they've hit "peak-desktop"- the desktop market will only decline from here. Microsoft is doomed!
- whatshisface 14y agoEveryone is doomed, just at different times. :)
- contextfree 14y ago"Memento mori"! I agree, "market thermodynamics" dictate eventually they will meet their doom, and at that time the perpetual doomsters will find themselves vindicated, like a stopped clock is vindicated twice a day. :)
- wheaties 14y agoYeah, I bought one of your licenses Microsoft. I didn't want to buy it. Given the choice I would not have bought it. And quite clearly as evidenced in my past week of Twitter I've been trying to get rid of it. Alas, to no avail...
- dangrossman 14y agoConsidering Microsoft is not reading this, and you don't have a Twitter account in your profile, would you mind sharing with HN what your message means? Why did you buy Windows 8 if you didn't want it, and why can't you get rid of it?
- ConstantineXVI 14y agoMy best guess would be he's referring to an OEM license that came with a PC he bought.
- wheaties 14y agoI bought an emergency computer at Best Buy pre-installed with Windows 8. No matter what I've tried I can not get the thing to start not in Windows. I can't even drop down to the legacy BIOS to get Linux to boot. Oh yeah, I also failed the recapcha several times before I could even get into the computer in the first place. A recapcha when you're first starting... brilliant. Btw, I'm not an MS hater but I am a Windows 8 hater.
- hnriot 14y agoWhat you describe is a feature of Windows 8, it's to ensure that a trusted source controls what runs on the hardware. Windows 8 is, as you've discovered, far more security conscious.
- rbanffy 14y ago> it's to ensure that a trusted source controls what runs on the hardware. Trusted by whom?
- joelthelion 14y agoI wonder how many they actually sold. Many are simply bought with new computers, and quite a few are probably the free upgrades that hardware vendors were promising for new Windows 7 computers just before the release.
- mtgx 14y agoThe vast majority of these licenses were sold to OEM's, who now have to "get rid of them" in the market. So we'll see how long that takes before they ask for another bulk of licenses from Microsoft. Could be weeks or could be months. If it's months, next time they'll request much fewer licenses.
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- jlgreco 14y agoDoesn't really matter to MSFT/your OEM if you remove Windows 8 after you get it, unless you go through the hassle of getting a refund for it.
- sliverstorm 14y agoBut just think of the internet points!
- actsasbuffoon 14y agoNot sure about that. According to the EULA, it appears that you can only downgrade to Windows 7 if you purchased the professional edition: Instead of using the Windows 8 Pro software, you may use one of the following earlier versions: Windows 7 Professional or Windows Vista Business. This agreement applies to your use of the earlier versions. If the earlier version includes different components, any terms for those components in the agreement that come with the earlier version apply to your use of such components. Neither the manufacturer or installer, nor Microsoft, is obligated to supply earlier versions to you. You must obtain the earlier version separately. At any time, you may replace an earlier version with Windows 8 Pro.
- astrodust 14y agoMaybe this is their strategy to sell Windows 8 and then also sell a copy of Windows 7.
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- arscan 14y agoAny news on enterprise adoption of Windows 8? I assume that this will be like Vista -- many large companies won't bother upgrading. That will be a huge drag on Windows 8 adoption.
- sliverstorm 14y agoI wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is actually already kind of banking on this. When better to venture towards mobile, than on the cycle that enterprise is less likely to pick up?
- meaty 14y agoEnterprise here who integrates with other enterprises. We have one windows 8 seat across 15350 unique endpoints and that was our test surface machine.
- dhawalhs 14y agoI wonder how many Windows 7 licences were sold in the same period
- arscan 14y ago"How does this compare to Windows 7 sales? Microsoft said it had sold 60 million Windows 7 licenses from the end of October 2009, its launch date, to the end of January 2010 December 2009. So that's 60 million Windows 7 licenses sold in two months. So far, Microsoft has sold 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in one month."
- dhawalhs 14y agoBy same period I meant since October 26 i.e. since the launch of Windows 8
- kenjackson 14y agoThe Verge reported 60million in a bit more than 2 months and 90 million in 4 months. Win8 seems to be doing in the ballpark (if not better) than Win7 in sales.
- aresant 14y agoWin 8 moves ~40,000,000 licenses in first month. Upgrades are $39.99. Win 7 moved ~30,000,000 in month one. Upgrades were $120 - 220/upgrade. Vista moved 20,000,000 first month. Upgrades were $129 - 299. MSFT is offering the DVD-version of Windows 8 for ~$30/more per copy so let's just pretend that the fair price for comparison of Windows 8 is $69.99 (since I assume far more physical media went out of Win 7 in 2009). So that's still 1/2 the revenue per upgrade they collected in the previous cycles. Looking at their revenue by division Windows & Win Live have been on the decline: http://www.tannerhelland.com/wp-content/uploads/Microsoft-revenue-by-division-2010-2012.png http://www.tannerhelland.com/wp-content/uploads/Microsoft-re... I wonder how drastically this will impact them - if they see a real, sustained gain in traction vs. Windows 7 adoption in the 25% range, that's not going to make up for the shortfall in revenues but certainly would help to lay a foundation for future growth in mobile / server & tools / business / etc. I'm not sure I even have a point, just trying to sort through this data and get a sense of what it means for MSFT macro.
- shuw 14y agoAccording to http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2012/10/11/windows-8-release-date-tablet-microsoft-cloud/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/netapp/2012/10/11/windows-8-rele..., Microsoft plans to spend 1.5 - 1.8 Billion dollars marketing Windows 8. That's 45$ of marketing costs per copy of Windows 8 sold to date.
- dansul 14y agoActually many who should have paid $39.99 didn't, and instead paid only $14.99. The reason is that the form which asks you about your supposedly "new" notebook purchased can be completed with fake info's and you would instantly get the discount code in your email. I know this because there were talks about it on many forums.
- arebop 14y agoMicrosoft's traditional strength has been their ability to lock users into their ecosystem. Windows revenue has been important for them, but as long as Windows helps them secure stable/improving positions for their other products and services, they could profitably license Windows for $0.
- ErikAugust 14y agoThey booted the guy who headed up the Windows product line. They can claim success and "greatest OS ever" all they want but it's clear to me that MS isn't thrilled.
- illuminate 14y agoHe left, he wasn't booted.
- melling 14y agoWe should be able see real Win8 usage numbers in the IE10 stats over the next couple of months, at least until IE10 ships for Win7.
- robotys 14y agoI like this line of thinking. But it still only reflect a portion of Win8 user as another portion of them will use alternative browser (chrome, ie).
- xutopia 14y agoThat's all? Their OEM manufacturers alone would account to about that much.
- forgotAgain 14y agoIf Microsoft wanted to impart real knowledge in pronouncements such as this they would have clarity in what they say. By not giving a definition of what they mean by "licenses sold" they are avoiding clarity. It's an example of why many people, including myself, have lost confidence in everything they say.
- kenjackson 14y agoLicenses sold is pretty clear. What else would you like them to say? This is the figure they've always given. It would seem odd to me if they created some new metric that we couldn't compare with Win7 and Vista sales.
- zik 14y agoSince the vast majority of these licenses are sold to OEMs to build systems it doesn't reflect anything much. The number sold to actual customers would be a lot more useful.
- kenjackson 14y agoWhat do you mean? Are you talking about the amount sold directly to consumers or the amount that get into consumers hands? The former is uninteresting. The latter would be great, but MS doesn't know this info (and they've never reported it). And the channel I suspect is pretty efficient when it comes to license acquisition, since you don't need to do runs like you do in HW.
- forgotAgain 14y agoWhat else would you like them to say? How many licenses are sitting with OEMs? If retails sales are below expectations the channel may have over purchased and items are sitting on the shelf. How many sales are through enterprise agreements? These sales may be a bundle of licenses for different products. It is not unusual industry practice to throw in, for next to nothing, products that for strategic reasons, need to have sales numbers inflated. Or the enterprises may have purchased the license because they are contractually obligated to buy the latest desktop OS version. It would seem odd to me if they created some new metric that we couldn't compare with Win7 and Vista sales. Since what they mean has never been defined there is no metric. They could quite easily have changed what's being measured and no one would be the wiser.
- NZ_Matt 14y agoHas anyone else noticed that any pro Microsoft news gets immediately flagged off the front page? The Hackernews hivemind really is creating its own little bubble. http://hnrankings.info/4839043/ http://hnrankings.info/4839043/
- kyriakos 14y agoWhat's very important is to know how well the store is doing. The windows store is the reason they are selling at a lower price than in the past, expecting a continuous stream of revenue through it.