Microsoft Has Sold 100 Million Windows 8 Licenses
Six months on, Microsoft has revealed the number of Windows 8 licenses sold to OEMs and through upgrades.
Back in January, Microsoft revealed that the company had sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses, which was in line with Windows' 7's progress two months after it launched in October of 2009. Four months on, the company has given us a little update on Windows 8's progress.
Speaking in a Q&A about the first six months of Windows 8, Microsoft's CFO and Chief Marketing Office, Tami Reller, revealed that the company has reached the 100 million licenses sold mark.
"We recently surpassed the 100 million licenses sold mark for Windows 8. This number includes Windows licenses that ship on a new tablet or PC, as well as upgrades to Windows 8," Reller said. "This is up from the 60 million license number we provided in January. We’ve also seen the number of certified devices for Windows 8 and Window RT grow to 2,400 devices, and we’re seeing more and more touch devices in the mix."
Hinting that Microsoft is aware that Windows 8 hasn't quite taken off yet, Reller said Redmond is happy with the OS's progress since it's launch late last year.
"[...] Windows 8 is a big, ambitious change," she said. "While we realize that change takes time, we feel good about the progress since launch, including what we’ve been able to accomplish with the ecosystem and customer reaction to the new PCs and tablets that are available now or will soon come to market."
Microsoft launched Windows 8 in October of 2012. The software launch coincided with the release of its Surface RT tablet, which runs Windows RT. The Surface Pro, which runs a full version of Windows 8, didn't launch until February in the United States. Microsoft is expected to release an update for Windows 8, codenamed Windows Blue, later this year.

i suspect that a good chunk of laptops pre-installed with 8 are downgraded to 7, and much of the rest would have been 7 if the customer had that option.
just because MS sold 100m licenses to the OEMs doesn't mean it's actually being used in end products, there still needs to be consumers to buy and use it.
just because MS sold 100m licenses to the OEMs doesn't mean it's actually being used in end products, there still needs to be consumers to buy and use it.
i suspect that a good chunk of laptops pre-installed with 8 are downgraded to 7, and much of the rest would have been 7 if the customer had that option.
I think most tech enthusiasts hate on windows 8. Cant see how they are counting windows RT though, i mean surely that should be classed as a different OS
Seriously, set photos to open in the photo viewer instead of the app, as well as your choice of video player for videos, and once you get past the start menu it's the same damn experience.
I've been using it for months and I honestly don't know why everybody is whining and moaning about how different and hard windows 8 is.
I think most tech enthusiasts hate on windows 8. Cant see how they are counting windows RT though, i mean surely that should be classed as a different OS
I think it's the exact opposite. I think most people hating on Windows 8 are people who have little understanding of their computer.
I think most tech enthusiasts hate on windows 8. Cant see how they are counting windows RT though, i mean surely that should be classed as a different OS
I think it's the exact opposite. I think most people hating on Windows 8 are people who have little understanding of their computer.
This, a hundred times.
I have a lot of trouble holding back reading through most of Tom's readers' comments.
That number actually used to mean something
All I know is: I have (4) windows 7 machines, (2) windows8 machines, (2) linux(diff distros) machines, and one osx machine. And if I had to get rid of one of the os's...it'd be osx.
The sad fact is they could've kept the NEW guts of 8, and made it much easier to work with by keeping the Start menu in. And I'm sick of hearing "just install blah, blah to get it back" - exCUSE me? I have to "install" something to get the SAME functionality as the old version had from the first install?
And if I want to play a DVD - I have to BUY more software? for something that was FREE in XP and Vista AND 7??