Gates calls Vista sales "amazing"
 

LOS ANGELES ? Bill Gates said Microsoft was "amazed" at the response to Windows Vista, the company's flagship product, which has sold nearly 40 million copies since its release Jan. 30.

Speaking today to a highly technical audience at Microsoft's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference here, the Microsoft founder and chairman said his company had high expectations for the product.

"I mean, we knew that Vista would become the standard version of Windows," Gates said. "... But what's happened in the last 100 days has been beyond our expectations. As of last week, we've had nearly 40 million copies sold and so that's twice as fast as the adoption of Windows XP, the last major release that we had."

In March, Microsoft said it had sold 20 million copies of Vista in its first month on the market. The company emphasized then that this was double the initial sales pace of XP, which was released Oct. 25, 2001, so today's announcement is not particularly surprising.

Gates went on to take a jab at smaller competitors in the operating-system business ? notably Apple, which has fielded a series of biting commercials attacking Vista and the PC platform and seen sales of its Mac computers surge. But Apple and open-source operating systems such as Linux still hold a tiny share of the market.

"In our first five weeks, we've matched the entire installed base of any other provider of similar software," Gates said.

Gates went on to provide details on two upcoming server products ? one aimed at homes with multiple PCs, and the other a new version of the company's widely used software for corporate networks.

The Windows Home Server, a new product Microsoft announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, is set to be available this fall, Gates said.

More than a dozen new hardware partners are working on home-server products, and Microsoft will license it to system builders who want to make custom home-servers, Gates said. Microsoft had one partner, Hewlett-Packard, when it announced the product.

The Home Server software is designed to back up, manage, secure and access content on multiple PCs connected to a home network ? essentially allowing a home user to better perform some of the functions of a corporate IT administrator.
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In an on-stage demonstration, Steven Leonard, senior product manager, showed how a parent could disable access to a child's music as a punishment for leaving a firewall security feature disabled.

For corporate networks, Microsoft is finalizing Windows Server, code-named "Longhorn" and expects to release the software code for manufacturing by the end of this year, Gates said.

"This is a product that has driven incredible growth and success for both Microsoft and the industry," Gates said.

Gates confirmed that Longhorn server will officially be called Windows Server 2008 ? a fact that was of little surprise to conference attendees both because of the company's drab naming conventions and because Microsoft inadvertently leaked the name earlier in the week. Gates acknowledged it with a bit of sarcasm.

"I know it's a surprise for us to pick something so straightforward, but we thought that would be the best choice," he said.

Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...bwinhec15.html

they're always bullshitting. they count licenses which means new computers sold with it preinstalled and then all of the corp licenses that they force on companies. real consumer purchasing is generally shitty and slowly adopted with microsuck.

too bad it's currently crappy, i guess good sales should motivate them to fix it...

I read a few weeks back that some of the companies are not happy that at year's end, no more XP will be supported or sold. So they are being forced to sell new PC's with Vista.

I can't blame them. Most of the feedback I've seen is that they are still a long way from a truly functioning OS. By forcing people to it (because there is no other real choice) it's going to make a lot of frustrations.

:Oh crap

I like XP :(

Yet just a few months ago Ballmer blamed dismal Vista sales on pirates.


http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/3...tes2zn7er3.jpg


http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37721

hmmmm... :)

i bet you are all using windoze HAHAHAHA

I must be one of the few people that actually like Vista. I have absolutely no problems at all with it. Everything that I use runs on it fine and it gives me a fresh OS to play around with, so I'm glad I bought it :) I have a second copy that I'm gonna install on my laptop, I was waiting for Nvidia to come out with Vista certified drivers, which they just did a week or so ago.

I am amazed too, that the public is so stupid that they will allow someone like Bill Gates to provide buggy software and overcharge them via his monopolistic business practices.

In my fantasy world, the public would be in the town center with pitchforks and screaming, demanding his criminal indictment.

Ya, amazing that anyone even bought it. That's why they are forcing it down your throats with new comp sales.

I agree, really the only ones I hear complain about it are people that arent even using it.

I would be kind of stupid to use something that you don't like, wouldn't it?

They are called fashion victims. IPods are nowhere near the best music player but anything less would have no street credibility.
?Its go Vista installed you know?
God help Joe public, the media certainly does a job on him.

I've also had zero problems and all of my software works as well : - )

How are you being forced? If you don't want a PC with Vista then buy a Mac or just install Linux, it's free. By th way if Mac lvoers think their OS is hot shit why doesn't Jobs sell it like MS does it's OS? If it's so good then people will buy it.

it's a shame no one can call Vista amazing!:pimp

You surely misread. I really doubt that they'd cut support for XP so quickly.

Win 98 support was cut in July 06, 8 years after it's launch and 5 years after the launch of XP.

While I much prefer my Mac, I also have a PC laptop with 1GB RAM and dual core 1.66Ghz. I think that should be sufficient to run Vista without any upgrades. And I hope I won't need a driver update for my laser printer.

I'm not anti-Vista; I just won't upgrade to it until I hear better reports that fixes have been made.

No need to get anything new anyway. I'd rather wait til something has been out close to a year. Less headache that way.

40 million problems

You misread chum.

They are not cutting off complete support/updates/patches like Win98/ME/2000 etc yet.

However, they are moving everything to Vista. Meaning new PC's will only have that option. It was covered in depth, and how Dell, among others, and corporations were not happy about it.

Exactly.

Vista is worthless until at least the first SP. I use it on a test machine and I hate it. Our users do to. Lots of compatibility issues.

There are plenty of people who do not care for Mac's, myself included. Or know jack about Linux. The vast public.

As for being forced, there is not a REAL viable alternative, and here's a new flash chief. Not all programs/games work on your Mac/Linux.

:disgust

I don't own a Mac. In fact I dispise the Mac cultists. Anyways I heard the same cries from people when XP came out about Windows 98. Now everyone is mad that XP won't be supported soon( which is UNTRUE by the way )

If something doesn't work with Vista that not Vistas fault. The company that made that product had well over a year to make it compatable.

I guess making XP no longer available may have boosted sales a tiny bit.

i think he is talking about the OEM imaging software

microsoft releases images for oems which include the service packs pre-installed
that way if an OEM wants to pre install the software they only have to do one install to get the machine up and running (windows, sp, office suite etc)

OEM can build images themselves, or use scripted installs but most are lazy and will just use the most current version of the os

it should be criminal we are paying to be beta testers.

Its only being purchased because you have no choice when you buy a new pc

Probably someone already mentioned this, but I'd imagine along with the liscencing for new machines. The sales are better than XP because everything that Microsoft is putting out right now is Vista, there is no ME or 2000 or whatever else was still being sold when XP came out. Plus back then I am pretty sure you could still buy a new computer with Windows 98 on it.

XP is still available and still will be. You can go into your local wal-mart today and pick up a copy of XP.

A) I doubt 40 million PCs have been bought since the end of January.

B) If you get an new computer I assume you wish to transfer stuff from the old PC to the NEW PC. Any reason why you can't also transfer your copy of XP and use that instead of Vista?

Its the fact that you dont like it just becuase its microsoft was my point. All the haters of Vista are people that dont even use it, they just rechew what others have said were "problems" most of which are from the beta or just plain made up seemingly.
XP has its problems, so does OSX, if OSX had even half the market share that Mircosoft does I would bet you would see alot more problems being voiced.

Because that would force companies to make drivers, and then there would be more problems with OSX because they would have less control of it.
It would also force them make the kernal compatible with all the hardware out there too.


As gator said, compatibility is a problem with the third party companies not making drivers that they had more then enough time to make, also you can run things in "XP mode" that elimiates most all compatability problems.

You want compatibility problems, try putting a video card that the mac doesnt ship with into one. Have fun with the open source beta drivers on that one.

Answer me why you hate it please.

No, you misstated.

Do you think that the general consumer feels that way? Damn you "generic software maker" for not making a vista compatable version of "generic software" for me to have to buy from you!

Please. Consumers are being screwed by this.

Using Vista right now. NO problems.

Computer makers have been told they'll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems.

By early 2008, Microsoft's contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines. "The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January," said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. "At that point, they'll have no choice."

Despite Microsoft's relentless promotion of Vista, manufacturers are still seeing plenty of demand from customers for systems preloaded with XP, especially in the finicky SOHO market.

In a recent post on its Direct2Dell blog, Dell reaffirmed to concerned customers that it wasn't about to force small business users -- who typically purchase PCs piecemeal, rather than in large enterprise-style orders -- to shift to Vista, which has experienced a less-than-stellar reaction from many buyers because of driver issues and moderately beefy hardware requirements.

"Dell recognizes the needs of small business customers and understands that more time is needed to transition to a new operating system," the post read in part. "The plan is to continue offering Windows XP on select Dimension and Inspiron systems until later this [northern] summer."

"From a local perspective, the post was a reminder more than an announcement," Dell ANZ corporate communications manager Paul McKeon told APC.

"This was something we'd always planned during the transition phase since businesses will have different time frames to adopt the new OS. If you're a consumer, you're unlikely to be managing more than say 2.4 OS images at home, so it's less of an issue"

There's general agreement amongst PC resellers that Vista has provided a minor boost to PC sales, but hasn't produced blockbuster numbers. A similar story applies in the retail space. Figures from marketing consultancy GfK suggest that after an initial sales surge, around 1500 copies of Vista are now being sold through Australian retailers each week, according to a recent report in the AFR.

While Dell's post suggested it wouldn't be promoting Vista systems to the home market, manufacturers still have the option of selling XP-based systems for consumers this year.

http://apcmag.com/5835/vendors_in_no...h_xp_for_vista


Indeed.

:disgust

Correct. I do not believe anyone said it was not on the shelves.

:disgust

Right.

However not every consumer wants to go through all of that hassle. Not everyone is as crafty to want, or do all that on a new machine. Reinstalling everything. This of course is for those who buy their PC's off the shelf, or order versus build them.

Also keep in mind that the OS 'phones home' now, so you can only have it on one PC. Not a major problem for everyone, but for those of us with 3 and 4 machines. The logic's flawed unless you want to buy another license, or junk a PC. Although that could very well be the case.

Joe Blow consumer doesn't know about a lot of the things that us as computer/internet/webmasters do for just reformatting, and starting new like you are proposing.

:disgust