Overnight Microsoft revealed their latest sales figures for Windows 8 and also confirmed that Windows Blue is coming to update Windows 8 later this year.
In a Q&A with Tami Reller, the Chief Marketing and Financial Officer for the Windows division at Microsoft, Windows Blogger Brandon LeBlanc posted about these things and a few other items.
Between that interview and the stories from other tech sites, which are listed below, here are the main points:
- 100 million Windows 8 licenses sold since release of Windows 8 just over six months ago. (Windows Blog)
- PC market is not dead but evolving into a more mobile market. (Windows Blog)
- Windows Blue will be available later this year and is based on customer feedback received since the launch of Windows 8. (Windows Blog)
- Windows Store has grown by a factor of six since it became available which surpasses what the iOS store had in its first full year. (Windows Blog)
- 250 million app downloads from the Windows 8 Store. (Windows Blog)
- More than 250 million users on SkyDrive, 400 million active Outlook.com accounts and 700 million active Microsoft Accounts. (Windows Blog)
- No mention of how many apps are actually in the store. Independent site, MetroStore Scanner, shows just under 68,000 apps (Time)
- Expect a bump in touch device sales this Summer as Back To School season begins (cNet)
- Windows 8 licenses sold are different than usage share (cNet)
- 739 updates for Windows 8 and Windows RT since release (cNet)
- Windows Blue pricing, packaging and other product details in next couple of weeks (ZDNet)
- Windows 8 sales are tracking right alongside those of Windows 7 (The Next Web)
- Compared to Windows 7 average sales of 20 million licenses per month Windows 8 is at 16.7 million (Windows IT Pro)
- Windows 8 is a long term play and still unfolding (Windows IT Pro)
- Number of sales would have been higher if Microsoft and its partners had been able to get more touch screen devices into the market earlier (GeekWire)
Windows 8 License Sales and Windows Blue stories across the tech web:
- Windows 8 at 6 months: Q&A with Tami Reller (Windows Blog)
- Microsoft: 100 Million Windows 8 Licenses Sold, Windows Blue This Year (Time.com)
- Microsoft sells more than 100M Windows 8 licenses in 6 months (cNet)
- What Microsoft is now saying (and not) about Windows Blue (ZDNet)
- Six months in, Windows 8 is selling at the same rate that Windows 7 did (The Next Web)
- Windows 8 hits 100M milestone, but usage remains low: Where’s the disconnect? (ZDNet)
- Microsoft Has Sold Over 100 Million Windows 8 Licenses in First 6 Months (Windows IT Pro)
- Windows 8 hits 100M licenses: ‘Very good, but not good enough,’ says Microsoft exec (GeekWire)
- Microsoft tops 100 million Windows 8 licenses sold, promises Windows Blue update in 2013 (Engadget)
- Microsoft Confirms Windows Blue Update Coming; Says Windows 8 Passes 100 Million Licenses Sold (All Things D)
As I wrap this up I just wanted to comment on something I saw for the first time as I reviewed the above stories. In the Time post by Harry McCracken he gives a Post PC Definition that I think should be adopted as a the norm across the tech world:
Disclaimer: by “post-PC era,” I don’t mean an era in which the PC doesn’t matter. I just mean that it’s no longer a given that the dominant form of PC will look like the desktops and laptops we’ve known and will run an operating system from Microsoft. I continue to maintain that anything that you do personal computing on, including tablets and phones, is a PC.
Proverbial nail on the head.
