180 Million Vista Licenses Mean What?
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 12.8.2008
Microsoft shipped about 40 million Vista licenses in the second quarter, or 180 million since the operating system's launch. But how many Vista licenses were on new PCs? Not nearly enough.
I've been planning to get to this analysis for weeks. But vacation, which ends later today, and other pressing news delayed writing. Bottom line: Vista is shipping on more PCs. That said, 40 million licenses shipped doesn't mean 40 million copies of Vista deployed. But you knew that, right?
According to Gartner, computer manufacturers shipped 72 million PCs worldwide during the second calendar quarter. The number includes x86 servers. Manufacturers typically ship a little more than 2 million servers a quarter (2.2 million in the first quarter), presumably the majority being x86 servers. Rounding up to 2 million x86 servers for math convenience, therefore, PC OEMs shipped about 70 million desktops and laptops.
By a simple calculation, Vista shipped on 57 percent of new PCs during the second quarter. However, OEMs account for only about 80 percent of Vista sales, which makes the number of Vista licenses shipping on new PCs to be 32 million. By my estimates, then, 46 percent of computers shipped with Windows Vista during the second calendar quarter.
That's an impressive number that is smaller in larger context. Based on my earlier estimate, Vista shipped on about 37 percent of new PCs from its Jan. 30, 2007, launch through April 30, 2008. How does that percentage look three more months of PC and Vista shipments later?
Between Jan. 30, 2007, and June 30, 2008, PC manufacturers shipped approximately 370 million PCs worldwide, according to published Gartner figures. I reduced the number by 42 million to account for the estimated number of x86 servers shipped and for the first 29 days of January 2007, when Vista PCs were not available for sale. Gartner's numbers were from Jan. 1, 2007, before my estimated adjustments.
Microsoft shipped the aforementioned 180 million Vista licenses during the same time period. The real number of Vista licenses shipped on new PCs is 144 million, assuming 80 percent of sales go through the OEM channel. By my arguably rough estimate, therefore, Windows Vista shipped on 39 percent of new PCs since its widespread release more than 18 months ago.
Neither percentage is great for Vista, but the second-quarter number indicates a changing trend. More PCs are finally shipping with the operating system, and that number is likely to shoot up in the third quarter. On June 30, Microsoft largely removed Windows XP from the OEM channel. System builders can still ship Windows XP through Jan. 30, 2009. Customers can still obtain an XP downgrade license on PCs with Windows Vista Business or Ultimate. But even if the PC is deployed with XP, Microsoft can count a Vista license shipped.
source:
microsoft-watch.com
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Comments(8)
that it is pretty good. i use home premium but i still have to change the rights on
themes to get it to change to something else.
one thing i noticed about all companies is that they always use rigged numbers when
presenting sales figures.
180 million licenses? great, how many are actually
installed on computers, and how many are still on the store shelves or worse still sitting
in some distribution warehouse.
want to impress me microsoft? tell me how many
computers are actually running vista besides mine and 2 others that i know about that
aren't sitting on a display at the local computer store.
i have to add though,
i just upgraded to vista so i can stay current on my it skills (family/friend/small biz
tech support). i do like the new look, uac isn't too big of a pain, there are better
tools and utilities but i have to do a lot more digging to change things. some stuff which
was 3 clicks away are now 5,6 or 7 clicks down not including uac alerts.
some
streamlining would be nice, hey microsoft make the next one modular, just include basic
versions of everything and get 3rd parties to make the bling stuff.
we had to pay an extra $100 to get xp put on our new laptop from dell. we just wanted xp.
we don't want xp and vista license but you don't have a choice anymore. that is surely
giving the big numbers to vista. they need to stop forcing vista down peoples throats. not
many in business want to use vista. if we couldn't get xp on the laptop we more than
likely would not of bought it. we need productivity in our business and vista sadly does
the the opposite.
as always
you want to run xp on every machine from now till 2020? simple. build your own. but
then in a couple years when hardware no longer supports xp, you'd be blaming them too.
i bought the not most recent model just because it still had xp as installation os, all
the new models are preinstalled with vista and you have to pay extra to get xp.
sorry
but, me neither, i dont buy a notebook with vista.
was windows me progress. nope. will vista be looked back in history as progress. i don't
think so.
both of those operating systems will be seen as failures and only the
workable parts were\willbe carried on to next version.
i guess our ideas of progress are different. i do everything with vista i did with xp.
crysis looks great with directx 10. haven't had a bluescreen since install, and with uac
enabled on my 71 yr old mothers machine i no longer have to drive 200 miles every 3months
to wipe/reinstall her system after being bombarded with trick install spyware. seeing how
it is the only operating system i have ever used that has gone almost 2 yrs without a
crash.........i'd say thats progress.
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painful remorse
By 12 on 13.08.2008 - 04:08