Microsoft: More than 200 million Windows 8 licenses sold

It's been a while since Microsoft execs shared an official count of licenses of Windows 8 sold. Last time we got a tally was in May 2013, when the Softies said the company had sold more than 100 million licenses.
On February 13, however, Microsoft's Executive Vice President of Marketing Tami Reller, casually dropped an updated figure of 200 million Windows 8 licenses sold. Reller made that remark during an appearance at the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference. (I listened to a live Webcast.)
Microsoft's silence since last May about Windows 8's sales rate has been taken by many as proof that the company isn't selling Windows 8 as quickly as it had hoped and expected.

Read the rest here:Microsoft: More than 200 million Windows 8 licenses sold | ZDNet

 

[HippsieGypsie]

A touch of ironic humour. Perhaps it got lost in the translation.

Big Time. . .

 

[Vertex]

You know its still a pain for me to open a Windows 8 laptop. I troubleshooted two of them in the last 4 months with the later one just being last Wednesday.

Being mostly on Windows 7 myself, the useless lock screen is just a hindrance everytime you are supposed to login and since its Windows 8 (not 8.1) that's preloaded with these laptops, the Metro screen is always the first thing you see after login. I installed Classic Shell of course just to make their owners more comfortable.

Another thing I don't really like with newer machines is Secure Boot or at least the way it operates. The only problem with the Windows 8 HP laptop I had touched days ago was that the owner messed up the password and couldn't login. I had to boot some bootable fixing tools including Hiren's Boot CD to get around this but apparently, I had to find the "Legacy Boot" option in the BIOS so that they could be bootable in the first place and there was a bug in the BIOS that as long as Legacy Boot was turned on, the laptop won't boot from the hard disk. I was able to fix it though but it would have takes far less time to do this on a Windows 7 laptop that came out years ago.

 

[MasterChief]

@Vertex: Yes, I hear you. Win 8(.1) is the classic example of, when compared to 7: "Do not try to fix what is not broken, and if you even dare attempt to, you better be most excellent at it." IMHO, 8(.1) is fail in many ways.

I'm not hating on M$. I think Win 7 is as perfect as any modern operating system could possibly ever be. Maybe take Win 8 new file copy GUI and put it on 7 with a Windows Update patch. That's all. Maybe Task Manager too but ehh either way on this one. (You can do this with stuff from Deviantart, anyhow.) They will never do this though, because it would be pointing out even more how you do not want 8.

 

[Vertex]

I'm not hating on M$. I think Win 7 is as perfect as any modern operating system could possibly ever be. Maybe take Win 8 new file copy GUI and put it on 7 with a Windows Update patch. That's all. Maybe Task Manager too but ehh either way on this one. (You can do this with stuff from Deviantart, anyhow.) They will never do this though, because it would be pointing out even more how you do not want 8.

Yeah, MS should have released an SP2 of Windows 7 with some of the good bits of Windows 8 included but they will NEVER do that because that would mean a further sign of defeat.

And OEMs should do their best to make their machines as easy to fix as possible. Secure Boot was more secure but its a double edged blade.

 

[justmetoday]

Microsoft pocketed the money for 200 million licensees regardless if they are setting on some OEM's or other companies shelves. It really only matters to those who for some reason just can't get past the idea of Microsoft making money from Windows 8.

I got a bit amused by your statement, I don't think anyone doubts the reasons why Microsoft releases new versions.

However, this time they had to design their own computers to fully utilize their software, they had to open their own store fronts and pay employee salaries, and still pay out these daily expenses. They also, had to let Best Buy cut into their profits (if any), and last year alone paid $750 million dollars just in advertising. They have given away free copies to schools, reduced prices many times. And yet, after all that, it still only has about the same amount of users as Vista. I don't see this as a real money maker, I am not sure it ever will.

 

[ainteinstein]

Um, from what I have been reading, other countries, are going to 7 instead of 8 or Ubuntu from XP. Unfortunately, as I am finding out , quite slowly, Crazy 8 is great if you do not change one thing in the original set-up. And do not add any old printers, programs, whatever, it looks at you like what is this? I just hope Crazy 8 does not become the orphan child of Gates.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Admittedly 8/8.1 is not MS’s biggest hit as of date, but we have a ways to go until 9 release. On the other hand, it is not a failure like Vista either. It’s just that it’s a drastic change > Change that I see some having difficulties with. At first it was a love-it-or-hate-it OS. Then as time went on some (seeing that it was a solid OS with added features) warmed up to it. 8.1 helped out even more so for the “Desktoppers” had more options. Then even more warmed up to it. I think the whole concept will eventually come around.

I don’t know the exact numbers for each division, but even if MS breaks even or loses a little in one division, they are well diversified to make it up in others. All in all MS continues to do quite well at making profit, which increases form year to year: Microsoft Investor Relations - Press Releases

OEM/MS relationship has been a strange affair from time to time through the years IMO. They got into spats just like anyone does. I would guess MS wanted to set the pace on how it’s going to be done, while diversifying with Surface hardware along with Xbox, and other peripherals, also adding Nokia this year. Nothing wrong with companies diversifying if performed properly, although I think they’ve got some learning to do so far as marketing. I see Lenovo and some others are performing somewhat well while others are struggling. Windows 8 was no secret to OEMs while being designed and created so their engineering departments could get on the drawing boards.

Touch UI is not at all anything new. It’s been around for ages. MS is stepping up to the plate and taking it a lot further in their new vision of how users/people will interact with devices, keeping in mind that the keyboard and mouse will continue to be input devices and always will be. Personally I have no problem navigating 8/8.1 with them whatsoever, although I prefer the keyboard at my desk tower and I prefer touch on other devices. It doesn’t mean that they can’t coexist.

Obviously MS in their vision sees touch UI an ever increasing means of human / machine interaction. They’re not alone. Other companies have been doing so with others entering the arena also. Here’s just one example: TouchTunes | Home Amazing tech and don’t forget the services that come along with.

You can read all about it here straight from the horse’s mouth confirmed by an auditor. You can read Ballmer’s goodbye letter to investors and even meet the new boss, whom I think will lead MS even farther into the new direction they chose to take. Microsoft Investor Relations

Have a good day and happy computing. With that I’ll post with Alt/S to make it a total of 10K posts.

 

[MasterChief]

Hippsie: You rock with that name and avatar. \m/ hah

Um - ya, touch, /sigh

They should give away free membership to Gold's gym to anyone using on a desktop, so he or she can maintain the strength and flexibility to use. hah

Moar p0wa to HG!!! 10k

 

[EMINENT]

The lock screen is one of my favorite features of 8.x. I love how it's implemented and displays what I want from my local or Onedrive.

Picture password is super convenient too.

It's pretty impressive how much they've sold considering the change from something that worked so well previously and the added decline of the industry.

I'm so glad they stepped up with Surface cause their previous partners never really made anything compelling. Much happier too that I have a choice other than the other platforms out there that never quite satisfied my needs.

 

[ainteinstein]

Touch and a Fluffernutter sandwich, on toast, do not mix. Right there was the mistake.

 

[thatITguy]

I prefer a fast desktop called Manjaro XFCE
Manjaro Linux

Why I migrated from XP to Manjaro Linux for business and pleasure. | LinkedIn

 

[justmetoday]

Admittedly 8/8.1 is not MS’s biggest hit as of date, but we have a ways to go until 9 release. On the other hand, it is not a failure like Vista either. It’s just that it’s a drastic change > Change that I see some having difficulties with. At first it was a love-it-or-hate-it OS. Then as time went on some (seeing that it was a solid OS with added features) warmed up to it. 8.1 helped out even more so for the “Desktoppers” had more options. Then even more warmed up to it. I think the whole concept will eventually come around.

I don’t know the exact numbers for each division, but even if MS breaks even or loses a little in one division, they are well diversified to make it up in others. All in all MS continues to do quite well at making profit, which increases form year to year: Microsoft Investor Relations - Press Releases

OEM/MS relationship has been a strange affair from time to time through the years IMO. They got into spats just like anyone does. I would guess MS wanted to set the pace on how it’s going to be done, while diversifying with Surface hardware along with Xbox, and other peripherals, also adding Nokia this year. Nothing wrong with companies diversifying if performed properly, although I think they’ve got some learning to do so far as marketing. I see Lenovo and some others are performing somewhat well while others are struggling. Windows 8 was no secret to OEMs while being designed and created so their engineering departments could get on the drawing boards.

Touch UI is not at all anything new. It’s been around for ages. MS is stepping up to the plate and taking it a lot further in their new vision of how users/people will interact with devices, keeping in mind that the keyboard and mouse will continue to be input devices and always will be. Personally I have no problem navigating 8/8.1 with them whatsoever, although I prefer the keyboard at my desk tower and I prefer touch on other devices. It doesn’t mean that they can’t coexist.

Obviously MS in their vision sees touch UI an ever increasing means of human / machine interaction. They’re not alone. Other companies have been doing so with others entering the arena also. Here’s just one example: TouchTunes | Home Amazing tech and don’t forget the services that come along with.

You can read all about it here straight from the horse’s mouth confirmed by an auditor. You can read Ballmer’s goodbye letter to investors and even meet the new boss, whom I think will lead MS even farther into the new direction they chose to take. Microsoft Investor Relations

Have a good day and happy computing. With that I’ll post with Alt/S to make it a total of 10K posts.

While I applaud your heart felt dissertation, the facts remain that it costs them any where from 3 to 10 times as much to sell a copy of Windows 8 then it did/does Vista. I also suspect a vast majority of users, use it only because of third party software add on's like Start8, Classic Menu and such (these saved Windows 8 from being a total disaster, in my opinion).

Again, Windows 8 with all it's drawbacks, I don't think it can compete in a tablet world either, simply because it doesn't have meaningful apps people can use.

Honestly, I think it may be Microsoft's most costly failure to date. Even their stock holders are trying to sue them for misrepresentation. I believe future versions of Windows may have many of Windows 8 innovations, but, it will certainly not be anything as these versions have presented it.

 

[MasterChief]

Yeah. It's not like most of the beta testers weren't screaming "no way" for the desktop, at least. It was very arrogant of the company to continue trying to force its will on the general public, when they knew it's not what the general public wanted as a whole for desktop.

If they made Windows 8 strictly for tablets and didn't call it Windows: say, "Winlet 1.0" - the world would have applauded them and their name would have carried on in pure greatness with the momentum they once had right after creating Windows 7.

I am by no means a businessman. I actually don't know the first thing. But I could have done better as head of company in last few years.