Microsoft Sells 40 Million Windows 8 Licenses in One Month - The UpStream

Microsoft Sells 40 Million Windows 8 Licenses in One Month

posted Sunday Nov 25, 2012 by Nicholas DiMeo

Microsoft Sells 40 Million Windows 8 Licenses in One Month

For some strange reason, it seems that almost every single tech news publication has been bashing Windows 8 since its inception, citing "severe learning curves" and other nonsense. Be it their desire to love to hate great things or if it's to make up for the multi-figure check that's sitting in their back pockets from the iNeedGoodReviews company, the fact remains that consumers who read the publications have been misguided from the get-go. Despite all of the alleged reasons to not buy or upgrade to a Windows 8 machine, however, Microsoft said this week that since the launch, the company has sold over 40 million licenses of Windows 8. This outpaces Windows 7 as far as early upgrades are concerned and it also means that most people understood that you now start from the Start Screen.

Tami Reller, the new Corporate VP and CFO after Steven Sinofsky's departure, said in her presentation to investors and media at the Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference,

The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far.

This accomplishment comes off the heels of Microsoft's previous news that the company sold 4 million Windows 8 upgrades in only three days. Of course, there's several reasons why the numbers are so high and putting Windows 7's performance to shame. First, you can upgrade from XP, Vista or 7 to Windows 8 for only $40 through January 1st. This is, in some cases, over $100 less expensive than those who upgraded to Windows 7 five years ago. Also, Microsoft has made a huge push to make upgrading to 8 as easy possible. Downloading the installer and even handing over your credit card information within the installation process is a piece of cake and is sure to entice some users who would otherwise be turned off by a more daunting upgrade procedure.

One thing to consider though is that Microsoft said that 40 million licenses were sold, leaving us to wonder how well PC, tablet and Surface sales are doing. We don't know yet exactly how many actual devices are leaving stores, although we do know that total PC sales are down 21% this month. It is completely possible more people are choosing to upgrade their existing machines to Windows 8 instead of moving to a more touch-oriented or more powerful piece of hardware. The third party manufacturers like HP and Samsung have definitely made some amazing computers that comes with Windows 8 installed; we just have to hope customers see the reason to buy a new PC as well as upgrade their old one, no matter how good that $40 upgrade deal may be.

The question now is will developers follow suit and create more apps on the platform? We know almost all of Windows 7 programs will work in the Desktop Mode, but at the end of the day, we want to see more Metro Modern UI apps and it looks like Microsoft has a an incentive for devs. Any developer who has their app see over $25,000 in revenue will be able to keep 80% of the revenue they make off downloads fore the life of their app, which is a 10% increase from their initial take when the app hits the Store. This must have convinced more developers to get onboard, along with the fact that designing for the front-end of Windows 8 is a blast (at times). It's also interesting to note that Microsoft said the Windows Store had more apps in its store at launch than any other app store at their launch.

Have you upgraded to Windows 8 yet? Do you not find the new Start Screen useful or interesting? Debate it out in the comments section below. Also, all my early adopters should check out the Podcast Publisher Play, found in the Windows Store right now. It's the best and only working podcatcher app for Windows 8!

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