Reports of well-below Windows 8 sales projections may be unreal. Microsoft revealed yesterday that it has sold more than 40 million licenses of Windows 8 in the last one month and somehow it meets the company’s sales projections.
On its Official Windows Blog, Microsoft writes that “Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades.” At Credit Suisse’s 2012 Annual Technology Conference, Microsoft’s professional Tami Reller disclosed the Windows 8 sales figures.
As we have already discussed before, Windows 8 is a big launch for Microsoft Corp. It is also a big change for Windows users. Last week, Microsoft Windows blogger Paul Thurrott announced that Windows 8 sales were not hitting Microsoft’s early sales figures expectations.
Yesterday’s declaration doesn’t fundamentally run counter to Paul Thurrott’s earlier story. Windows 8 upgrades and retail sales versus OEM’s direct sales has not been disclosed by Microsoft yet. The number of Windows 8 licenses which Microsoft has sold during last one month also does not speak to the present market consumption of Windows 8 desktop and laptops in businesses and homes.
On Monday, Thurrott penned a follow-up post providing more color on the Windows 8 sales stats. According to Paul’s sources, Microsoft is putting the blame of its new Windows 8 “slow sales” on its OEM associatates who have failed to provide hardware units to retailers in a timely manner.
After Windows 8′s market launch, it is clear that Microsoft desires to attain control of the messaging of Windows 8. Just two weeks after the Windows 8 market launch, Steven Sinofsky, head of all things Windows, unexpectedly resigned from Microsoft. Along with that event, joint with the uncertain market response to the Surface RT, users conceptions may have changed about the platform itself.
It will be vital for the Julie Larson, new Windows chief to have proper control not just of the several Windows communities but also of the public messaging for their new platform going forward.
