Windows 7 Sales Push Past 600 Million Milestone

Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system has reached an important milestone: It has sold 600 million licenses globally.

That’s the word from Microsoft’s corporate vice president of OEM, Steven Guggenheimer, who announced the metric during a keynote address at Computex. According to him, Windows 7 is now running on more than 39 percent of Internet-connected devices worldwide. Which is impressive — remember, Windows 7 was first introduced in October 2009.

Windows 7’s sales appear to be accelerating, which is great news for Microsoft because every Windows 7 sale is a potential Windows 8 upgrader. And the company has been putting a lot of effort into that forthcoming OS.

“This is the biggest launch time in Microsoft’s history,” Guggenheimer said. “In addition to updating Windows client, Windows Server, phone and embedded platforms, there’s a massive wave of software and services coming to market that we think will delight customers, from Windows Azure, to Office 15, Xbox games, Skype and Bing.”