Has anyone else noticed that any pro Microsoft news gets immediately flagged off the front page? The Hackernews hivemind really is creating its own little bubble.
Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
51–60 of 64 posts
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#52Win 8 moves ~40,000,000 licenses in first month. Upgrades are $39.99. Win 7 moved ~30,000,000 in month one. Upgrades were $120 - 220/upgrade. Vista moved 20,000,000 first month. Upgrades were $129 - 299. MSFT is offering the DVD-version of Windows 8 for ~$30/more per copy so let's just pretend that the fair price for comparison of Windows 8 is $69.99 (since I assume far more physical media went out of Win 7 in 2009).…
Complicating the picture is that "licenses" includes upgrades and OEM copies. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd imagine that the OEMs represented a modest bump over Windows 7 - basically just reflecting the expansion in the market for PC's - but that the bargain basement upgrade price convinced a lot of enthusiasts to upgrade on day one.
Anecdotal, but even the dyed in wool Windows guys I know (gamers, .net programmers, etc.) were slow to upgrade to Vista and Windows 7. $120-$300 upgrades that didn't improve performance were hard to justify - the money was probably better spent on graphics cards and games.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think cash flow is Microsoft's overriding concern at the moment. They'll still get plenty of steady income from their corporate cash cows. Right now, I think Microsoft is more worried about the existential threat of a world where people are weaned off Windows. They want Windows 8 to be used in as many places as humanly possible. If they can maintain their ubiquity, their overall ecosystem is secure. They will…
If that were true, then I would have also expected them to ease up on the anti-piracy measures.
It seems to be really hard for any big company to be "OK" with piracy, even if that company wants to get its software in as many hands as possible. They simply crave control. This is even somewhat reasonable, as pirate versions may be unreliable in ways that the official version isn't, thus giving a bad impression of your software. They would rather just sell the official version dirt cheap.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#54Any news on enterprise adoption of Windows 8? I assume that this will be like Vista -- many large companies won't bother upgrading. That will be a huge drag on Windows 8 adoption.
Enterprise here who integrates with other enterprises. We have one windows 8 seat across 15350 unique endpoints and that was our test surface machine.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#55They booted the guy who headed up the Windows product line. They can claim success and "greatest OS ever" all they want but it's clear to me that MS isn't thrilled.
He left, he wasn't booted.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think cash flow is Microsoft's overriding concern at the moment. They'll still get plenty of steady income from their corporate cash cows. Right now, I think Microsoft is more worried about the existential threat of a world where people are weaned off Windows. They want Windows 8 to be used in as many places as humanly possible. If they can maintain their ubiquity, their overall ecosystem is secure. They will…
If that were true, then I would have also expected them to ease up on the anti-piracy measures.
They did. By lowering the price. I used to have 2 PC's running pirated copies of windows. Not anymore, they are both running Windows 8 I purchased at a reasonable price of 39.99.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#57What's very important is to know how well the store is doing. The windows store is the reason they are selling at a lower price than in the past, expecting a continuous stream of revenue through it.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#58Win 8 moves ~40,000,000 licenses in first month. Upgrades are $39.99. Win 7 moved ~30,000,000 in month one. Upgrades were $120 - 220/upgrade. Vista moved 20,000,000 first month. Upgrades were $129 - 299. MSFT is offering the DVD-version of Windows 8 for ~$30/more per copy so let's just pretend that the fair price for comparison of Windows 8 is $69.99 (since I assume far more physical media went out of Win 7 in 2009).…
I think Apple & Microsoft both are trying to move to yearly or at least two year release cycle. Windows and Mac OS X upgrade prices otherwise does not make sense compared to prices for 4 year cycles.
Lower prices with shorter release cycle = same revenue.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#59If Microsoft wanted to impart real knowledge in pronouncements such as this they would have clarity in what they say. By not giving a definition of what they mean by "licenses sold" they are avoiding clarity. It's an example of why many people, including myself, have lost confidence in everything they say.
Licenses sold is pretty clear. What else would you like them to say? This is the figure they've always given. It would seem odd to me if they created some new metric that we couldn't compare with Win7 and Vista sales.
What else would you like them to say?
How many licenses are sitting with OEMs? If retails sales are below expectations the channel may have over purchased and items are sitting on the shelf.
How many sales are through enterprise agreements? These sales may be a bundle of licenses for different products. It is not unusual industry practice to throw in, for next to nothing, products that for strategic reasons, need to have sales numbers inflated. Or the enterprises may have purchased the license because they are contractually obligated to buy the latest desktop OS version.
It would seem odd to me if they created some new metric that we couldn't compare with Win7 and Vista sales.
Since what they mean has never been defined there is no metric. They could quite easily have changed what's being measured and no one would be the wiser.
Re: Microsoft: We've sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses to date
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think cash flow is Microsoft's overriding concern at the moment. They'll still get plenty of steady income from their corporate cash cows. Right now, I think Microsoft is more worried about the existential threat of a world where people are weaned off Windows. They want Windows 8 to be used in as many places as humanly possible. If they can maintain their ubiquity, their overall ecosystem is secure. They will…
If that were true, then I would have also expected them to ease up on the anti-piracy measures.
"I would have also expected them to ease up on the anti-piracy measures"
Are there any specific anti-piracy measures you're referring to, or just the presence of them?