Windows 7 Sales Strong
The Wall Street Journal reports that, during its first week on store shelves, Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 7 operating system sold like hotcakes. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was vague about the details, but was quoted as saying that sales have been “fantastic” since it launched October 22nd.
However, research firm NPD Group, which tracks retail sales, uncovered that unit sales of boxed Windows 7 in U.S. stores were 234% higher during the software’s availability in its first few days than they were for Windows Vista, which debuted in 2007. While NPD’s figures don’t account for business sales, the article quoted a tech reseller that caters to business, education and government customers, saying the firm has seen a “strong uptick” in demand for PCs and Windows 7 since the product debuted.
Other experts in the piece sited a mixed picture of hardware sales tied to Windows 7, and October is traditionally a weak period for PC sales – too late for back-to-school and too early for the holidays.
Microsoft remains hopeful: It’s waiting for the sales data from partners in the hardware and retail businesses, but a spokesman noted that the NPD figures are “in line with the anecdotal stories we’ve heard about excitement people have for Windows 7.”
Of course, my interest in Windows 7 sales has nothing to do with any stock positions or holdings that I may (or may not) have in Microsoft. LOL. Rather, it’s in 7’s features designed to work within the cloud computing framework. And, given the amount of PC users out there – in both homes and offices – I’m watching with great interest the adoption rate and subsequent exposure to the cloud.
And, of course, the more cloud users there are, the more companies will come to understand the critical need to keep their businesses running smoothly via website, network, app transaction, server, cloud storage – and even cloud – monitoring.
Lastly, I’m happy that people and businesses are buying again. Sick of this recession; time to let go of some of that money everybody’s hoarding.