20 Million Copies of Windows Vista Sold

Microsoft has published a report on the Microsoft's new generation operating system sales. The report stated that in the period between January 30 and February 28, 2007, 20 million copies of Microsoft Vista were sold; compared to 17 million copies of Microsoft's Windows XP sold in the same period of time in 2001, two months after its release, Vista's index could be considered as rather impressive.

However, these 20 million copies include a series of other facts. Since October 2006 PC manufacturers have offered their buyers either a free or a or a cheaper upgrade of their old system to the new Vista. Distributive copies of Vista ordered by PC manufacturers for pre-installation on their PCs, the copies bought at shops and the ones downloaded from Microsoft's on-line stores have been included in current report.

Michael Silver, vice-President of Gartner, a research company, said that the current report cannot actually reflect the true situation concerning Windows Vista's sales. According to Gartner's research, during the period mentioned above the PC manufacturers and their dealers sold from 12 to 15 million home desktops, having the Windows XP Home Edition pre-installed as their main OS. Mr. Silver said that considering the fact that all these 12 to 15 million computer owners have been offered a free or a cheaper upgrade to Windows Vista, then the figures are not so impressive as Microsoft want us to believe.