Microsoft Has Sold 60 Million Windows 8 Licenses
Microsoft revealed at CES that it's sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses.
At the JP Morgan Tech Forum hosted at CES, Windows Chief Financial and Chief Marketing Officer Tammi Reller revealed that Microsoft has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses since the operating system's launch in October 2012.
However, this number isn't a reflection of the OS's success, or of how many people have adopted Windows 8. Instead, the 60 million figure includes the number of licenses sold, upgrades, and sales to OEMs.
Microsoft's price promotion for Windows 8 upgrades--$39.99, or a mere $14.99 for users who purchased a Windows PC in mid-2012—no doubt helped boost sales.
Though Windows 8's figures are certainly impressive and match Windows 7's (which were around the 60 million mark about two months into its sales), its launch hasn't boosted the PC market. Instead, NPD reports that Windows 8's launch did little to help notebook sales, which has continued to decline.
I've been using it on my work pc since launch and encounter something that's different between 7 and 8 maybe twice a day. Other than that it boots faster, runs very similarly and the graphs for data movement speeds and the fleshed out task manager are much nicer than the same old same old that have been present since NT.
Microsoft doesn't care much about Windows 8 license/upgrade money. What Microsoft does care about is to get as many people to use (the user interface formerly known as) Metro and Metro apps on as many devices as possible, to gain a foothold into the mobile market. That's the entire reason for Windows 8 being the way it is.
Windows 8 market share is around 2% now, after 2 months, which is an adoption rate slower than that of Vista, and that was with huge upgrade discounts. At the current adoption rate (0.66% gain in December, the busiest shopping month of the year by far), Microsoft will need 2 years to reach 15%, meaning the number of Metro users will be even lower (not everybody who uses Windows 8 spends time in Metro or buys apps). This is not just a failure of Windows 8, it's a debacle of Microsoft's entire (non-Xbox) consumer products strategy - Surface and other RT tablets are not selling, W8 tablets are not selling, Windows Phone is still around 3% market share (same as 12 months ago), they're getting criticized by OEMs and PC sales are projected to continue declining.
Microsoft got spooked by Apple's success with the iPad and they've drawn completely wrong conclusions. What's worse, they're not showing signs of changing course, they're instead hoping to drag their existing Windows user base into their walled garden by simple inertia. It's not going to work with me, I'm using Windows 7 until 2020 or until Microsoft comes to their senses.
You clearly have never used it.
I've been using it on my work pc since launch and encounter something that's different between 7 and 8 maybe twice a day. Other than that it boots faster, runs very similarly and the graphs for data movement speeds and the fleshed out task manager are much nicer than the same old same old that have been present since NT.
Oh and Metro which you are totally fine with as a desktop user once you use it more than a week.
Considering what I paid for 7 the $40 for 8 is a deal.
WP8 still isn't quite there but in a years time I can see MS being in a very, very strong position...
40$ Windows 8
5$ Start 8
So it's basically a faster Windows 7 in the end for half the price. Metro and the lack of Start Menu were the only real disadvantages to Windows 8. I have not had a single game or program not work, so I'm happy in the end.
8 really is 7 with a few features added and a few features limited. In the end, "Metro/Modern" is still cumbersome. It takes a long time to get it working and the transition between "Metro/Modern" and Desktop is not seamless and gives the sense of desperation. The UI isn't really the biggest failure though, it is the activation scheme. If you change your HDD/SSD, it creates problems. Try changing the video card in an upgrade version... major failure. Apple-style lockdown.
Microsoft has "sold" x Million, let's say 60 for propaganda sake. to Distributors in the channel.
less than .01% of this 60 million, has actually been sold to any customer with entrepreneurial spirit, as Windows 7 is still outselling Win8, by a ration of at least 1,000,000 : 1
When it comes down to it, people are just ignorant and they hate change. To be honest I did not like win8 for the first few weeks I used it as the first beta... But, as with anything, it takes ~1 month to give something a fair shake, and after that first 2-3 weeks when I finally caught the workflow they were aiming at I really fell in love with it. As you said, the desktop and all of the power features are just like win7 with some pretty nice improvements, nobody should complain about that.
As for Metro, it will get better as the App environment gets better. People think of Metro as a program, or addition to Windows, which is overthinking it a bit. Think of metro as a framework which ties different programs together. A common search engine can search within each metro app. Metro apps themselves can share resources and data between eachother, even if they were not specifically designed to work directly with each other. When you realize how it is supposed to work, it is actually kinda neat. Not too good for work stuff... but that is what the desktop is still there for. I think when (or if) we start seeing apps that utilize the Metro platform rather than trying to be stand-alone applications, then metro will click with people, and we may see some really neat and innovative stuff come from it.
Give it a year for hardware manufacturers to integrate touch, kinnect, or leap-motion interfaces into things then I think a lot more people will like using it. Right now it is a touch oriented OS (or at least Metro is), and it is being put into machines that are still centered around the win7 design philosophy.
Personally I don't have any kind of touch interface on my rig, and I love win8 on it.
Let's be real, most of the people posting here are twits who paid for an annoying OS, but don't want to admit they were fools.
Windows 8 blows for a desktop. It's awkward and annoying, but it is usable. Even so, there's no reason for it, except within the context of Microsoft making it easier to sell tablets and phones. Once you get used to it on the desktop, if anyone with an IQ of over 110 can without constantly being annoyed with it, then it's a very easy transition to getting a Windows based tablet or phone.
That's it. It wasn't made to improve your desktop experience, it was made to make you buy a Windows based phone. Do you wonder why it's coming out now?
Now, all you cattle who don't want to admit it's poorly designed for the desktop, just keep reading Microsoft mantra, and keep being what you are, cattle. But, don't come here posing like you've got it all figured out, and those who don't like this Tablet/Phone OS on their desktop aren't being progressive.
Some of us CAN think for ourselves, and see things for what they are. We like it that way. Some people are born to be cattle, and those that do, obviously like it that way. It's nice, if you find something you thought you didn't like about Windows 8, just read a Microsoft article on it, and you'll realize you really did like it after all. You just didn't understand your emotions the first time.
And remember, cattle, Microsoft loves you. Isn't it nice to be loved? ... and have tiles?
Windows 8 are just a bad bad idea. Even worst than Vista and that's the reason:
Vista sucked back in 2007, but if you install them on a today's hardware, they are ok.
But Windows 8 suck today, and even with 2016 hardware, they will still suck, because their flaw is not hardware requirements or bugs, its flaw is the absolutely irritating user interface.
Microsoft doesn't care much about Windows 8 license/upgrade money. What Microsoft does care about is to get as many people to use (the user interface formerly known as) Metro and Metro apps on as many devices as possible, to gain a foothold into the mobile market. That's the entire reason for Windows 8 being the way it is.
Windows 8 market share is around 2% now, after 2 months, which is an adoption rate slower than that of Vista, and that was with huge upgrade discounts. At the current adoption rate (0.66% gain in December, the busiest shopping month of the year by far), Microsoft will need 2 years to reach 15%, meaning the number of Metro users will be even lower (not everybody who uses Windows 8 spends time in Metro or buys apps). This is not just a failure of Windows 8, it's a debacle of Microsoft's entire (non-Xbox) consumer products strategy - Surface and other RT tablets are not selling, W8 tablets are not selling, Windows Phone is still around 3% market share (same as 12 months ago), they're getting criticized by OEMs and PC sales are projected to continue declining.
Microsoft got spooked by Apple's success with the iPad and they've drawn completely wrong conclusions. What's worse, they're not showing signs of changing course, they're instead hoping to drag their existing Windows user base into their walled garden by simple inertia. It's not going to work with me, I'm using Windows 7 until 2020 or until Microsoft comes to their senses.
Yes, but if they continue torture clients, technology will find its way. On other words, Microsoft takes advantage of their monopoly in order to change things the way the like it, but in the end, they shouldn't get surprised if they see more people using linux. Nowadays, it even has Steam, and the office applications are more user friendly than the "visionary" office 201x versions