According to the leading market research company, The NPD Group, Windows 7 sales in the USA for the week of October 18-24 have exceeded those of its predecessor (Window Vista) by 234%. This figure includes the pre-orders of Windows 7, which had – surprisingly - outsold UK Amazon’s own ”Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” novels as Robert B mentioned earlier. Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, explained:
Microsoft’s program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful…
Microsoft is definitely overjoyed to hear about the current success of its latest operating system. In fact, it has pointed out this news on The Windows Blog.
This was regarding the sales of Windows 7 retail boxes. But what about those of PC hardware? Despite the fact that PC sales growth was at its peak for the third quarter, it wasn’t strong enough to beat that of Windows Vista’s. For those who prefer to deal with numbers, PC sales were less by 6% compared to those of Windows Vista during the first few days after its launch.
In my opinion, sales of Windows 7 are going well overall. However, I’m more excited to see how the market share of Windows 7 will be. It has already broken the 3% barrier, which is a good indication. Nevertheless, I totally agree with Andrew when he exclaimed:
Windows 98 still has 0.11% marketshare. Really, you guys? How are you even using the Internet with that OS? Makes me wonder how much longer Windows XP will be around…
I guess we’ll have to wait several months before we can answer the question: Will Windows 7′s market share surpass that of the eight year-old Windows XP? Personally, I’ll be pleased to see this happen. What about you?
