Windows Vista sales figures daunt Apple

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Microsoft touted the breakneck pace of Windows Vista sales on Monday, pointing to the dramatic improvement over XP's early figures and creating an imposing benchmark for Mac OS X Leopard's initial success.



The Redmond company was keen to report the positive uptake on its new operating system, claiming that over 20 million copies had traded hands worldwide in the month since the official Vista release on January 30th.



Those figures easily doubled the numbers managed by Windows XP, which itself had record sales of 17 million units in the two months after its release in October 2001. Putting the company's success in perspective, however, Windows marketing director Bill Mannion noted that the results were good but not out of line with his employer's goals.



"It's a little bit better than what we were expecting," he said.



Microsoft's new statistics seemingly canceled out its earlier cautious stance, which had been pragmatic at best: just last month, company CEO Steve Ballmer had labeled investment groups' predictions "optimistic" and warned that Vista was primarily the firm's way of sustaining marketshare.



Nevertheless, the sales will prove a potential barrier to Apple's own quest for a greater piece of the market. Upon its release in 2005, Mac OS X Tiger's success managed only a tenth of its Windows XP rival, selling 2 million copies in its first four weeks. Roughly 7 million copies were sold in the year as a whole.



Further emphasizing the challenges faced by Apple are the company's demographics. The computer maker reported 19 million active users of Mac OS X at last year's WWDC gathering -- meaning that Apple's entire user base could fit into less than a single month of Microsoft's most recent OS customers. A reported swelling of the former's ranks to 22 million this month, according to analysts' estimates, would still be overshadowed by Windows.



Without immediate evidence of Vista floundering in its intial sales, Apple's long-term success will therefore depend more than ever on Mac OS X Leopard's release in the spring to boost its stake in the computer business, possibly riding the coattails of Vista towards its own sales spike.



"We like how Vista has established a 'hardware upgrade mindset' among PC users," said ThinkEquity analyst Jonathan Hoopes earlier this month. "And we expect Apple CPU unit shipments to benefit from Vista tailwinds [and] the release of Leopard."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 103
    The numbers quoted by Microsoft include all sales of new PCs that came with Vista preinstalled, as well as people who purchased Vista-ready PCs in December and January that came with free upgrade coupons.



    This doesn't sound to me like a lot of people have shelled out hundreds of bucks for Vista in a box to put on their existing PC. It just sounds like people have continued to buy PCs, which constitute about 96% of the market. No big surprise there. As the news reports say, this has not caused a bump in hardware sales. It's just business as usual.



    Implications for Apple? Very few, I think.
  • Reply 2 of 103
    So you mean to say that more people bought a new computer than in the same period six years ago?



    "Wow."
  • Reply 3 of 103
    "We like how Vista has established a 'hardware upgrade mindset' among PC users," said ThinkEquity analyst Jonathan Hoopes earlier this month."



    Does he expect this new mindset to boost Mac sales? I wonder if this analyst ever saw the latest Apple commecials --

    how about the one that says that only PC users need to worry about the "major surgery" of hardware upgrades...
  • Reply 4 of 103
    also a 3 million increase from 17m to 20m isn't all that great when you think about how many more PCs there are now from when there were when XP was released
  • Reply 5 of 103
    jpellinojpellino Posts: 697member
    ... or am I missing something?

    17M units XP in the first two months (60 days).

    20M units since Jan 30, which was 56 days ago.

    How is that double?
  • Reply 6 of 103
    "Given that the PC market has almost doubled since XP launched, Vista sales "probably should be more," said Michael Silver, vice president of research at Gartner, a technology research group.



    Silver said 51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year, the research group predicts 96 million consumers will buy a computer.



    The analyst also noted that the number of holiday-season upgrades, which actually represents a backlog, rather than new sales since Vista's end-of-January launch, could take some wind out of Microsoft's sails.



    Silver estimates PC makers sold between 12 million and 15 million PCs with Windows XP Home Edition over the holidays. While Microsoft wouldn't say how many Vista upgrades were ordered in that time frame, Dell Inc. spokesman Bob Kaufman said about two-thirds of its holiday PC shoppers registered for the upgrade.



    "That would say that those (Vista sales) numbers aren't all that great if that includes all that backlog," said Silver.



    Shipments of Vista to U.S. retailers in February lagged XP's first-month shipments by about 56 percent, according to the NPD Group, which tracks retail software sales."



    In other words, Microsoft are being a little economical with the truth in their press release. I don't think anyone at Apple is 'daunted' just yet.
  • Reply 7 of 103
    This also includes people in SMB and Enterprice up adding XP still to thier network. M$ sells then a liecnes for Vista but the client uses XP. I work at a Large VAR and this is how we seel XP now!~
  • Reply 8 of 103
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    How is the dominant platform people are locked into (or think they are) a benchmark for the underdog's next release?



    How is the Win98 base upgrading to XP--which was a MUCH smaller base of users--a benchmark for XP users upgrading to Vista today?



    And how are Vista sales a benchmark for Apple's financial success OR the success of the product as something great for users to get their hands on?



    Microsoft has really been grasping at straws (rather than truth) lately. Apple was depending on Vist sales "floundering"? I had no idea that was necessary
  • Reply 9 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mike Henkes View Post


    This also includes people in SMB and Enterprice up adding XP still to thier network. M$ sells then a liecnes for Vista but the client uses XP. I work at a Large VAR and this is how we seel XP now!~



    Back away from the crack pipe. Now.
  • Reply 10 of 103
    Shall22's quotes from the AP story hit the nail on the head. If you look a bit inside the numbers, you'll see that Vista sales are actually struggling quite a bit, despite what Microsoft is trumpeting.



    It's quite telling that first month Vista shipments are 56% less than where XP was at the same stage. And while 20 million sounds impressive on the surface, when you factor in that 60-75% of those "sales" are via upgrade coupon redemptions for free or heavily discounted copies, that doesn't sound good for Microsoft at all.



    If anything, Apple should be encouraged rather than daunted by these numbers.
  • Reply 11 of 103
    Oh, for heaven sakes. I was expecting to see this garbage article, but not regurgitated without challenge by a site like AppleInsider. What is with these crumby articles lately? A Sprint Phone that cannot even compete with the iPod in terms of music playback, while completely missing out on the key innovations of the iPhone, presented as a threat of some sort to the product. Paying homage to DigiTimes’ ridiculous suggestion that OS X would be delayed for Vista of all things? This is just bad reporting. An Apple website should research these matters so they are comfortable with the sources, then present the story along with the truth behind it.



    As for this article, it represents three key considerations:

    1) Copies of Microsoft Vista pre-installed on over-the-counter units.

    2) Copies of Microsoft Vista theoretically pre-sold in that upgrade program.

    3) Copies of Microsoft Vista shipped—stuffed into retail channels—awaiting sale.



    #1 in particular has been generous to them this time around. Why? Because they have gone to great lengths to strip XP from the retail channel. If you are shopping at big-box stores you are going to have a tough time finding new PCs with Windows XP pre-installed. You are also going to have a tough time buying Windows XP over the shelf. Microsoft is forcing Vista upon its customers, many of whom are not happy about it—particularly elderly who aren’t ready for more change, and old computer users who are faced with a new system that will not be backward compatible with their peripherals. It is no wonder so many have ‘sold’?



    How about the actual over-the-counter Vista upgrades? You won’t be seeing those numbers—they are selling horribly. Most of the people who are excited enough to run Vista on a pre-Vista system are actually pirating it—or can’t afford it, and businesses want nothing to do with it.



    None of this should come as a surprise though. Microsoft has been doing this for some time now.



    Edit: Hell, this probably also includes all the OEM licenses HP, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba, and others have purchased in bulk but haven’t even shipped yet. All the computers waiting to be shipped, that have been shipped, that are sitting around in warehouses across the world.
  • Reply 12 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nevenmrgan View Post


    So you mean to say that more people bought a new computer than in the same period six years ago?



    "Wow."



    Absolutely correct. What's even funnier is that this "20 million" figure may also include vouchers given to PC purchases as far back as november.



    http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070326/micro...ales.html?.v=2



    Pay attention to the fourth paragraph and onward.
  • Reply 13 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nevenmrgan View Post


    Back away from the crack pipe. Now.



    why? i worked at a hospital that had 2000 pc's. We were still running 95/98 but every pc we bought came with 2000, then xp. what he said is true.
  • Reply 14 of 103
    bacillusbacillus Posts: 313member
    The real number, as others have pointed out, is the non OEM sales. Not many want Vista, since XP is not that bad. When I installed XP, it was over a ME install, so you know I really wanted it. Thus far, I have yet to meet a single person who 'wants' it over XP.
  • Reply 15 of 103
    cory bauercory bauer Posts: 1,286member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bluebuoy View Post


    The numbers quoted by Microsoft include all sales of new PCs that came with Vista preinstalled, as well as people who purchased Vista-ready PCs in December and January that came with free upgrade coupons.



    I was wondering if those numbers included the "free upgrade to Vista" coupons they've been handing out with new computers for months; thanks.
  • Reply 16 of 103
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mgworek View Post


    why? i worked at a hospital that had 2000 pc's. We were still running 95/98 but every pc we bought came with 2000, then xp. what he said is true.



    Yeah, this does happen in small businesses today, but it isn’t anywhere near as common as it was in the past. Any hospital big enough to require 2000 PCs, these days, would have a contract with a company such as IBM for their hardware. This hardware would be installed by the providing company (e.g. IBM) and would be pre-configured to meet the customer’s needs. IBM would not use or deploy Vista OEM licenses in these cases [nor would most of the computers meet Vista system requirements]. But don’t worry, Microsoft is getting their Vista ‘sales’ through plenty of other means.
  • Reply 17 of 103
    palex9palex9 Posts: 105member
    as if the amount of something sold was any indication of its qualtiy...



    -----

    the count

    http://thecountsworld.blogspot.com/
  • Reply 18 of 103
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    Smoke and mirrors. It's all about how you push the numbers around. Anyway, it's just that many more people using a crappy OS and makes Mac users more special.
  • Reply 19 of 103
    Apple roughly owns 6% (as of Dec. '06) of the PC market. Roughly 20 Million users. Well, how can 90% of the Windows-based PC market, which is by-far more than 20 million, have only bought 20m copies (or computers preloaded) with Vista -and that it be considered: "a little bit better than what we were expecting"? Wow, is Microsoft really that pessimistic? Three months into Leopard, Apple could sell 20 million copies to its rising mac user base. It seems to me that Microsoft is doing exactly what Big Brother would do...lie to the masses (and themselves) over their deprivity and ignorance...or shame.
  • Reply 20 of 103
    tinktink Posts: 395member
    How bout those numbers broken out as actual individual OS sales over the counter...not OEM.



    I'm planning on getting a new PC for the Office Manager here at work as soon as I get a sec, and I'm already looking at having to go Vista because of it showing up in all the OEMS .



    I really don't want it on our systems right now and really want to stick with XP..., but may soon be out of luck.
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