John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Windows 8 Tallies 60M Licenses, on Par With Windows 7 Rollout

Microsoft’s new Windows 8 operating system may not have jolted the PC market out of the doldrums in the way manufacturers had hoped, but it seems to be generating solid, albeit unspectacular, interest.

Speaking at the J.P. Morgan Tech Forum at CES Tuesday, Windows Chief Financial Officer Tami Reller revealed that Microsoft has sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses to date. Reller said that number is “roughly” in line with the performance of Windows 7 at the same stage of its rollout three years ago.

Regardless, 60 million is 20 million more licenses than Microsoft had sold by the end of November.

That said, the figure includes upgrade sales, as well as sales to PC manufacturers, so it’s not at all a reflection of sales of Windows 8 devices to consumers and businesses. And until Microsoft discloses hard numbers describing those sales, we’ll have to rely on metrics from market research firms, which are nowhere near as rosy as Microsoft would like. To wit, NPD Group’s announcement last week that sales of Microsoft-powered notebook PCs dropped 11 percent during the five-week holiday-shopping season.

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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