The company has sold four million Windows 8 updates since its launch last week, says Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Microsoft also says it has shipped “tens-of-millions of copies” of Windows 8 to its partners. While Ballmer did not reveal any sales figures for the Surface tablet, he said the level of interest and enthusiasm for Windows 8 and the new tablet has been “stunning”.
“I think we are really resonating across the board with the work we are bringing to market.”
According to Ballmer, hundreds of millions of Windows 8 systems will be sold over the next year, and the company is seeing “strong interest” from business users.
Earlier this week, Ballmer said Microsoft was seeing preliminary demand for Windows 8 well above the level seen for Windows 7 at launch. Windows 7 was released in 2009 and sold over 670 million licences to date.
In September, Ballmer predicted that in just one year, there would be close to 400 million devices running Windows 8 (across Windows phones, tablets and PCs). The Microsoft user base is also currently estimated to be at the 1.25 billion user mark, so while Windows 8 is seemingly off to a strong start, it still has a long way to go.
Stop the shrinking
says Windows 8 is a make or break product for Microsoft. “Windows will endure a slow start as traditional PC users delay upgrades, while those eager for Windows tablets jump in. After a slow start in 2013, Windows 8 will take hold in 2014, keeping Microsoft relevant and the master of the PC market, but simply a contender in tablets, and a distant third in smartphones.”
According to Gillett, while Microsoft has long dominated PC unit sales, the tremendous growth of smartphones and tablets is significantly shrinking Microsoft's share of all unit sales of personal devices (which is currently at about 30%).
“Microsoft has and will continue to grow unit sales of Windows and Windows Phone. But the mobile market grew very fast in the last five years, while Microsoft had a tiny share in smartphones and no share in tablets,” says Gillett.
“Windows 8 will simply stop the shrinking, maintaining Microsoft's share at about 30% through 2016. By 2016, we believe Microsoft will have about 27% of tablet unit sales, but only about 14% of smartphone sales (and some of us are very sceptical they'll even get to 14%).”
Forrester anticipates two billion personal device sales in 2016, with most market growth attributed to mobile devices. As a result, Windows Phone 8 still needs to prove itself in the highly competitive smartphone market.
“Microsoft is extremely late to the market expansion into mobile and has lost its dominant position. Now it's one of three contenders. So Windows survives, and is not in the downward spiral of RIM, Palm, and Nokia, but it is no longer the king of the expanded personal device hill, which now includes PCs, tablets, and smartphones.”
Gillett says over the next five years, the market landscape will see Microsoft still dominating PCs, Apple's iPad still leading the tablets, and Google's Android continuing to lead in smartphone sales.
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