Windows Vista is Selling at Double the Pace XP did
Microsoft said that it has sold more than 20 million copies of Windows Vista in the first month since the operating system hit shelves on January 30. The world’s biggest software maker said the pace of Vista adoption is at more than twice the rate of its predecessor, which had sold 17 million licenses after its first two months.
Mixed Signals
The numbers released by Microsoft follow mixed messages from the company about the pace of adoption for Windows Vista, the company’s first major operating system upgrade in more than five years. Only weeks after the Vista release, Steve Ballmer said analysts’ expectations were “overly aggressive.” Prior to Vista’s general release, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer had predicted that consumers would move to Vista faster than past Windows upgrades.
The Windows franchise is the centerpiece of Microsoft’s business, because the company makes more than 75 cents in operating profit for every dollar of sales. The cash flow generated by Windows allows Microsoft to make investments in new businesses like digital music players and online services.