60 million Licences Sold for Windows 8

By: Zain Nabi  |   January 9th, 2013   |   News

Microsoft has announced that it has, to date, sold 60 million licences for Windows 8 that was launched in October 2012. As per the details, these figures include new licences, upgrades and sales to OEMs for new devices.

 

These figures, which represent the same success Windows 7 achieved after its launch, were disclosed by Windows Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller at the 11th Annual J.P. Morgan Tech Forum at CES 2013.

 

According to the official Windows blog, there are more than 1,700 certified systems for Windows 8 and Windows RT, and the company has also experienced a significant growth in the number of developers and the apps they are creating.

 

In November 2012, Microsoft announced to have sold 40 million licences for Windows 8, and the recent development suggests that the company has sold 20 million licences and upgrades since November’s end.

 

This trend reflects positively on Microsoft’s efforts to retain Windows as top and most favourable operating system. However, there is a flipside of the story that must not be ignored.

 

The stats from Microsoft clearly indicate that the figure of 60 million represents upgrades and sales to OEMs for new devices. This shows that some of the licences are purchased for those machines and devices that are not yet built and will be used in future. Meaning: they will not put into any use for the time being.

 

Microsoft has also said that over 100 million apps have already been downloaded in two months since opening of the Windows Store. On the face of it, this development is encouraging, but Microsoft must keep on coming with new features to entice users because it is still very far from Apple and even if it continues to grow at the same pace (100 million apps in two months) it will not be able to match Apple for quite a few years.

 

Source: theregister