Microsoft Sells 4 Million Copies of Windows 8

[edogawa]

[citation][nom]LukeCWM[/nom]So they spend a minimum of three years developing this OS, and you want to judge them on their return on investment by only a few days of sales? Does not compute...[/citation]

I'm not judging them, I know they will make several billion dollars or more in the long run; just 4 million seems low for an opening; it shows lack of interest by consumers and that's not a good thing for a corporation.

 

[tolham]

[citation][nom]rds1220[/nom]My thoughts exactly. The only people I can imagine buying this POS operating system are suckers or Microsoft's version of Isheep who will buy the lastest Microsoft software and proclaim it's the greatest thing sine the invention of the PC no matter how sh***y it is.[/citation]
what makes windows 8 a POS? is it buggy? does it lack features? is it incompatible? or are you just referring to using the metro UI on your desktop once and not liking it right away and not switching over to the normal desktop version?

 

[jaber2]

Chrome apps on Windows 8, sweet

 

[wolley74]

In other news MS Tech Support employies threaten to hang themselves with thier phone cords due to overwhelming calls due to broken copys of Windows 8 missing its desktop

 

[Guest]

"Hundreds of millions of people are aching to use your apps, just dying to use your application."

I haven't met one person who was dying to try Windows 8.

 

[dimar]

I'm using windows 8 pro as purely desktop OS, and not planning to register for apps any time soon.

 

[hate machine]

[citation][nom]tolham[/nom]the article says "over four million copies since its *release on Friday*."i translate "release on friday" to mean retail copies. were the OEM licenses "released" on friday as well? i would think those get handled differently, but i don't really know.[/citation]

They were Upgrades. Both the digital upgrades for around 50 bucks and the 15 dollar "If you bought a Windows 7 PC recently" ones. OEM and Retail sales data is probably not complete yet. I'm sure they will toot their horn soon enough, according to Ballmer this edition is selling faster than Win 7.

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/microsoft-sold-4-million-windows-8-upgrades-in-three-days/

 

[GeoMan]

[citation][nom]rds1220[/nom]My thoughts exactly. The only people I can imagine buying this POS operating system are suckers or Microsoft's version of Isheep who will buy the lastest Microsoft software and proclaim it's the greatest thing sine the invention of the PC no matter how sh***y it is.[/citation]
Windows 8 has significantly improved boot and shut down speed, faster rendering for both web and OS UI, better multi monitor support, better account and cloud integration, better task manager and storage management. It’s made system back up, repair and recovery better, improved printer support and its performance at Black Hat and DEF CON proved Windows 8 to be the most secure operating system out there. It also manages to cohesively knit interfaces for touch and normal desktop use into a single platform, with full x86 backwards compatibility, something nobody else has thus far been able to pull off either.

rds1220, if by “sh***y”, “POS operating system” you mean it’s faster, feature filled and the most secure OS, that works on the greatest variety of devices, then you are correct. If that’s not what you meant, then you sir would be mistaken.

Your fun little rant has shown you to be nothing more than a stupid, ignorant, vitriolic little internet troll. If wrapping your head around a full screen start menu and a context dependent menu system is too difficult for you, perhaps the dark, dank and musty bridge from whence you came is the best place for you to return to.

 

[Guest]

Microsoft will fare better if they invest that amount of advertising money into develop a stylus that works like S Pen in Galaxy Note 2, which allow users to have precise point and click, with mouse buttons accessible from the pen, and with ability to hover over the screen and perform mouse movement. A stylus like this will make the desktop mode and all existing applications and games instantly usable in a touch environment. Also, a split screen desktop mode which allow user to specify a specific resolution on the upper portion of the screen to run games, and allow user to define a customizable keyboards and what keys are to be available on screen in the lower portion of the screen. So you can run, lets say, a 1366x768 games on top, and control it using both the stylus and the onscreen custom keyboard at the bottom.

But instead, Microsoft decides to throw away support for all existing applications to release Windows RT and spend billions of dollars in this new UI which is not designed for keyboard and mouse usage.

 

[f-14]

[citation][nom]cedric1955[/nom]Microsoft is obviously not trying to get some quick cash, by offering the 40 dollar upgrade they are trying to convince people that they are still a top player and there is still a future for windows. They are just going for the long haul. Plus alot of people aren't aware a new version of windows has even been released, with all the adds this should change and more copies of windows should also be sold.[/citation]


more like microsofts confidence is not very good on the quality of this product and it's success considering how much they have invested into it and in marketing.

 

[tolham]

^i wouldn't say that so much as msft are hungry to regain their former glory. retaining customers and getting new ones are more important than turning a big short-term profit. offering lower prices and getting the word out are good ideas. i haven't used win8 or a win8 phone or the surface tablet, but msft aren't in a position to take anything for granted and they know that. they need to release quality products and they have money to fund R&D. these are the best conditions for a company to really pull together and come up with something good.

 

[hiryu]

Probably, because they have heavily lower the cost of Windows 8 upgrade to as low as ~20 dollars (if you "claim" you bought the PC with Win7 recently) or $40 for all other upgrade from WinXP, Vista or Win7.
I don't remember MS had lowered the price for Win7 to this level.

 

[goodegg]

4 Million of 670 PCs currently running win7. And who knows how many others running Vista and XP, both of which are able to upgrade directly to Win8.... That's a pretty sad adoption rate. 0.59% of just Win7 machines, so I'm estimating 0.3% of all potential machines.

Time will tell how quickly upgrades happen, but 4 million only sounds like a lot. There's a LOT of PCs out there.

 

[CaedenV]

if I remember correctly from the build conference this morning Balmer said that they had sold 4 million upgrades through online and retail channels, and 10's of millions of copies to corporate partners... that's a lot of crappy box art flying off the shelves that happens to contain a pretty decent OS inside.

 

[acadia11]

I pre-ordered.

 

[acadia11]

Pricing was too good to pass on , I paid 300 for win 7 retail, 40 win 8 was a no brainer

 

[deepblue08]

[citation][nom]Bloob[/nom]That's 4 million upgrades, not counting sales to OEMs. They won't make much from those early upgrades, but I bet it is more important for them to get the ball rolling.http://microsoft-news.com/microsof [...] -upgrades/It is similar to Google Play in all those ways too.[/citation]
Indeed, I think these early sales are not so much about making money but about getting the word out. I can see all the spoiled kids having the I-have-the-new-Windows-and-you-don't argument already.

 

[Fierce Guppy]

The Win 8 Pro upgrade was dirt cheap at $50(NZD) compared to what I've previously paid for MS OSes. They've been OEM versions at around $250(NZD). I suspect many will give the OS a fair shake due to the price, even ones who thought Win 8 preview was a complete pig's arse. Once I performed a reformat and clean install of Win 8 Pro as opposed to retaining my Win 7 settings, and got all my stuff loaded into it and made it my own, I'm not keen to go back to Win 7 ult.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]Bloob[/nom]That's 4 million upgrades, not counting sales to OEMs. They won't make much from those early upgrades, but I bet it is more important for them to get the ball rolling.http://microsoft-news.com/microsof [...] -upgrades/It is similar to Google Play in all those ways too.[/citation]
That source is an MS circle-jerk website...

In a few days MS knows how many it "sold"? They know how many they shipped... most likely. Just like MS counted every OEM XP-sided graded system as a "Vista sale".

Where the real proof in Win8 success or failure is in the following months... complains or praises from the end-users themselves.

I have Win8 on a notebooks... its ugly, its designed by idiots... has no value over Win7. Its not worth the $40 or even a $1 to purchase.

 

[LordConrad]

" He continued on to stress that there are 670 million PCs running Windows 7, which all can be upgraded to Windows 8."

There is a big difference between can be and will be. My computers won't be.

 

[ohim]

[citation][nom]ddpruitt[/nom]Let's see comparisons of Win 7, Vista, and XP when they were released. Then we would have something to compare these numbers too.[/citation]
Win7/XP are not OS that span across desktops and portable platforms.

 

[xrodney]

[citation][nom]Wolley74[/nom]In other news MS Tech Support employies threaten to hang themselves with thier phone cords due to overwhelming calls due to broken copys of Windows 8 missing its desktop[/citation]
That would be interesting to see how they do that because call-centers usually use hands-free

 

[xrodney]

[citation][nom]GeoMan[/nom]Windows 8 has significantly improved boot and shut down speed, faster rendering for both web and OS UI, better multi monitor support, better account and cloud integration, better task manager and storage management. It’s made system back up, repair and recovery better, improved printer support and its performance at Black Hat and DEF CON proved Windows 8 to be the most secure operating system out there. It also manages to cohesively knit interfaces for touch and normal desktop use into a single platform, with full x86 backwards compatibility, something nobody else has thus far been able to pull off either.rds1220, if by “sh***y”, “POS operating system” you mean it’s faster, feature filled and the most secure OS, that works on the greatest variety of devices, then you are correct. If that’s not what you meant, then you sir would be mistaken.Your fun little rant has shown you to be nothing more than a stupid, ignorant, vitriolic little internet troll. If wrapping your head around a full screen start menu and a context dependent menu system is too difficult for you, perhaps the dark, dank and musty bridge from whence you came is the best place for you to return to.[/citation]
That's matter of opinion, I would hardly see difference when booting to W8 compared to W7 given that cold boot to W7 desktop takes 14 seconds on SSD.
As for backups in W8 I wont call them better, you cant make backup of all files. just those in your libraries, on your desktop, your contacts, and your browser favorites.
Also you cant make backup on same drive, which is good in case you loose that disk, but bad if you want it just to save different versions of files.
Also storing your account and settings on cloud is something i would really want to avoid, cloud can be hacked, data can be accessed by vendor employees or even other country government if they really want to. And there was more then one occasion when cloud storage problem ended up with data loss.

 

[ojas]

4 million down, at least 996 million left to go!

 

[sasaboata]

Don't let M$ marketing manipulate you - 4M (if they are 4 at all, no one but MS can check that number) is with all pre-purchased Win8 OS, incl. $15 special offering for upgrades.
And frankly: 4Mil can resonate as a number, but in fact is quite pathetic record.
Ballmer is offtrack and had to leave once great company long time ago to able it develop beyond Win+Office. Now all seems about to abandon the sinking ship, ACER just starting.