Will Vista's *real* sales performance please stand up?

[kirangp]

Measuring the sales performance and market impact of a product like Windows Vista is never easy, even under the best of circumstances. Microsoft serves a worldwide market of consumers across an array of market segments from basic consumers to high-end business IT, so any attempt to draw broad, soundbite-compressed conclusions on launch performance inevitably paints the specific and individual traits of emerging international markets with a very broad overall brush. This lost or obscured data could potentially explain why Microsoft Vista sales (and sale trends) are either excellent (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070326-vistas-twofold-sales-boost-microsoft-should-thank-pc-market-growth.html) or disappointing (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2109181,00.asp), depending on whom you talk to. The problem doesn't seem to be confined to the press—even Steve Ballmer evidently isn't sure what to expect (http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/111773.asp).


Here is the source---- click click click (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070412-will-vistas-real-sales-performance-please-stand-up.html)

[ketanbodas]

It is picking up. Now you hardly get pcs with genuine xp we got one with vista so You see vista will have to go up up only ;-)

[mediator]

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/stacking_vista_licenses_too_high.html


Microsoft's claim of 20 million Vista licenses sold (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2107715,00.asp) simply doesn't add up when trying to assess who realistically bought them in the time frame—"in the opening month"—stated in today's press release (http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/mar07/03-26VistaDebut.mspx).
Further, the press release claims that "Windows Vista made a splash in its debut."
What kind of Kool-Aid are they drinking up there in Redmond? Who spiked the Windows Vista-logo soda cans?
"Clearly there haven't been 20 million PCs sold worldwide since Jan. 30, and we're really only talking about February," said Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis.




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