Microsoft reveals strong pre-sales of Windows 8 in quarterly earnings
Sales of Windows PCs plunged ahead of the forthcoming release of Windows 8, but Microsoft saw strong pre-sales for its next-generation operating system ahead of its Oct. 26 launch.
Though sales through Microsoft's Windows division were down by a third in the most recent quarter, the Redmond, Wash., software giant saw $783 million in pre-sales for Windows 8. That's a number 40 percent higher than comparable pre-sales for its predecessor, Windows 7, InformationWeek noted on Friday.
The 33 percent decline in revenue in Microsoft's Windows division did not include pre-sales of Windows 8, as that revenue was deferred to the launch quarter. It also did not include sales of Windows 7 PCs that are eligible for a $15 upgrade to Windows 8, which amounted to another $384 million in deferred revenue.
However, Microsoft did note that "competitive pressures" in the market also contributed to a decline in the previous quarter. Sales of traditional PCs have been greatly affected by the popularity of Apple's iPad.
"The launch of Windows 8 is the beginning of a new era at Microsoft," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Investments we?ve made over a number of years are now coming together to create a future of exceptional devices and services, with tremendous opportunity for our customers, developers, and partners."
With Windows 8 pre-sales reaching nearly $800 million, the new operating system has seen pre-sales 40 percent higher than Windows 7, which launched in late 2009. The company plans to spend $1 billion to advertise its fall product lineup including Windows 8 and the new Surface tablet running Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 compatible with low-power ARM processors.
"We?re incredibly excited to be approaching general availability of Windows 8 and Windows RT," said Kevin Turner, Microsoft chief operating officer. "We?ve already certified more than 1,000 systems for Windows 8 from our hardware partners, ranging from the smallest tablets and convertibles to touch-enabled ultrabooks and all-in-ones to the most powerful desktop computers."
Earlier this year, Apple launched its own Mac operating system upgrade in the form of Mountain Lion. OS X 10.8 comes preinstalled on all new Macs, while existing Mac users can upgrade via the Mac App Store.
Apple sold 3 million upgrades to Mountain Lion in its first four days of availability in July. In September, the company revealed that total upgrades had reached 7 million in less than two months.
Though sales through Microsoft's Windows division were down by a third in the most recent quarter, the Redmond, Wash., software giant saw $783 million in pre-sales for Windows 8. That's a number 40 percent higher than comparable pre-sales for its predecessor, Windows 7, InformationWeek noted on Friday.
The 33 percent decline in revenue in Microsoft's Windows division did not include pre-sales of Windows 8, as that revenue was deferred to the launch quarter. It also did not include sales of Windows 7 PCs that are eligible for a $15 upgrade to Windows 8, which amounted to another $384 million in deferred revenue.
However, Microsoft did note that "competitive pressures" in the market also contributed to a decline in the previous quarter. Sales of traditional PCs have been greatly affected by the popularity of Apple's iPad.
"The launch of Windows 8 is the beginning of a new era at Microsoft," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Investments we?ve made over a number of years are now coming together to create a future of exceptional devices and services, with tremendous opportunity for our customers, developers, and partners."
With Windows 8 pre-sales reaching nearly $800 million, the new operating system has seen pre-sales 40 percent higher than Windows 7, which launched in late 2009. The company plans to spend $1 billion to advertise its fall product lineup including Windows 8 and the new Surface tablet running Windows RT, a version of Windows 8 compatible with low-power ARM processors.
"We?re incredibly excited to be approaching general availability of Windows 8 and Windows RT," said Kevin Turner, Microsoft chief operating officer. "We?ve already certified more than 1,000 systems for Windows 8 from our hardware partners, ranging from the smallest tablets and convertibles to touch-enabled ultrabooks and all-in-ones to the most powerful desktop computers."
Earlier this year, Apple launched its own Mac operating system upgrade in the form of Mountain Lion. OS X 10.8 comes preinstalled on all new Macs, while existing Mac users can upgrade via the Mac App Store.
Apple sold 3 million upgrades to Mountain Lion in its first four days of availability in July. In September, the company revealed that total upgrades had reached 7 million in less than two months.
Comments
Imagine it black glass and translucent. Would look way sleeker.
Thats just appearance thou - will have to actually play with it to see how intuitive it is.
People dont like change, so i imagine there will be complaints. However, with the emerging tablet market - they did pick a good time for a paradigm shift with their OS design.
Apple should similarly estimate all the iPhones it will sell in the winter quarter and chat about them in the fall quarter where it isn't selling any many, so we can perpetually talk about what Apple is and will be selling, rather than talking about how it isn't selling the new phone before it's available in the market, and how the old phone isn't selling as well at the end of its life span.
They are running a promotion until January where you can buy Win8 pro for $70. After that, it'll be $200. At this price, I'm thinking about trying it out for my old WinXP machine that I haven't touched in a year after getting an mac mini. Of course sales are going to be heavy at this price.
These numbers can only be sales into the pipeline, and as one person suggested, to PC vendors gathering licenses for preloading on new PCs.
I certainly won't be installing Windows 8 in my VM without knowing more about it, and how it will run the few Windows apps I, infrequently, use.
My Apple computer is getting old but I'm keeping it because it works with very few problems. I might even upgrade the RAM and hard drive to give it a boost and extend its lifetime.
If the new Windows 8 cost the same as 7 I wouldn't be making that purchase. I would just stick with my older version. It is my hope that this is the last Microsoft product I will buy.
"competitive pressures"
Why use so many letters to spell Apple?
I absolutely hate Metro, and considering all the chatter about how Microsoft's partners think Windows 8 is aweful, makes you wonder who's cooking the books at Microsoft to get those numbers. Only IT sheep would bother buying Windows 8, and only to know the headaches they'll have to deal with in the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by waldobushman
These numbers are very unlikely.
I am with you on this. Why, because this is the same corp that post numbers of Shipped XBOXes instead of Sold. So, I take those numbers as shipped... sold on the other hand... not so much.
Look, can we use custom icons for Metro yet? It's one thing to completely change how the computer is used, alienating a huge portion of your existing market, it's another to not let us at least change it so that it's not torture just to look at.
Quote:
Originally Posted by waldobushman
These numbers are very unlikely. Enterprises are always cautious to moving to new OSes, so there is no chance that Windows 8 will be getting into the hands of any enterprise users quickly.
These numbers can only be sales into the pipeline, and as one person suggested, to PC vendors gathering licenses for preloading on new PCs.
I certainly won't be installing Windows 8 in my VM without knowing more about it, and how it will run the few Windows apps I, infrequently, use.
Unlikely? The numbers are the numbers... Microsoft has cash in hand for sales not yet recorded.
whether or not Win8 will 'deploy' will be one thing, but Microsoft is 'selling' these licenses now. If you're a corporation, you're buying a Win8 License Day 1 post-release. You may overwrite it with your enterprise image, but you own the license.
I want to have a Win8 VM in parallel with my Win7 and XPsp2, as part of my infosec analysis work, but 'use' it? dunno.
I really hate the "puzzle-like" (for the lack of a better description) layout. It's cluttered, unorganized, and, even though some have different colored backgrounds, all the icons are the same color. They did something like this with Xbox a few years back and it was horrible.
When I was younger, I took a bunch of "cool" differently-sized pictures and pieced them together in my room to make an "awesome" wall o' pictures. It was a horrendous, ugly mess. The only difference here is that I figured out that that look was horrible a decade ago...
It's a collage. Besides, having a screenful of smiling models at the beach and monochrome icons is such an improvement over the old Start menu.
My macbook pro runs windows 7, and i have to say microsoft did a nice job with windows 7. I wouldn't call it prefect but its nice. I use both OSX and windows 7 and have only minor problems with both.
But I hate the idea of windows 8, I haven't used it any, but from all the PC loving people I know, they don't even like it.
I will stick with OSX and windows 7.
Give it 6-8 months.
http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2003636731_webvista26.html
Yup.
LMAO
Just because Ford sends cars to dealers doesn't mean anyone is going to buy them.