Windows 8 Upgrades Selling Quicker than Windows 7: Microsoft Confirms 40 Million Licenses Sold in a Month

It has only been a month since Windows 8 was launched and Microsoft has confirmed that the new operating system is being sold at a faster pace than Windows 7, three years ago. According to Tami Reller, Financial and Marketing head of the Windows unit, 40 million licenses for Windows 8 have been sold this one month.

From Tami’s presentation: “The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far.”

The number might not be spectacular but it is a solid figure that Microsoft can build on. The OS which is touch-friendly will be a worthy opponent for Apple and Google which now dominates mobile computing. The dominance of mobile computing had seen people shun PCs to favor smartphones and iPads.

Reller did not give exact figures but said that the OS which was launched on October 26 has already had 40 million of its licenses being sold while its predecessor, Windows 7, had sold only 60 million licenses in first 10 weeks by the end of 2009.

She also said that most of the sales had come from upgrades rather than new machines being bought, which costs more. She did not give sales figures for this observation either. Upgrading the OS to Windows 8 would cost $40, while purchasing the complete software package costs $70. A new PC with the new software installed would cost hundreds of dollars. 

Many of the 40 million licenses were bought by PC manufacturers to build machines featuring Windows 8. StatCounter, the tech research firm, has observed that Windows 8 machines would account to around 1 % of the world’s PCs, which is around 15 million PCs.