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Windows 7 hits over 4% market share in less than three weeks
Windows 7 continues to blaze trails, both in new sales and in upgrades of existing machines. As of the second week in November, less than three weeks since the official release, Windows 7 has reportedly snagged over 4% of the global OS market. At that speed, Windows 7 is outpacing its predecessor at an alarming rate. It took Vista roughly six months after release to reach 4% share.
This momentum may continue through the end of the year, when PC sales are traditionally high. If it does, it will be interesting to see where most of the users are coming from -- be it upgrades from XP, Vista, or new machines. Regardless, the message is clear: Windows 7 is growing at an astounding rate.
A report earlier in the month indicated that Windows 7 was selling significantly better than Vista in retail, which was undoubtedly affected by pre-order discounts. It is possible that as pricing returns to normal, retail sales could decline. That point may be moot, however -- it is safe to say that from this point onward, Vista sales will come to a halt.
This momentum may continue through the end of the year, when PC sales are traditionally high. If it does, it will be interesting to see where most of the users are coming from -- be it upgrades from XP, Vista, or new machines. Regardless, the message is clear: Windows 7 is growing at an astounding rate.
A report earlier in the month indicated that Windows 7 was selling significantly better than Vista in retail, which was undoubtedly affected by pre-order discounts. It is possible that as pricing returns to normal, retail sales could decline. That point may be moot, however -- it is safe to say that from this point onward, Vista sales will come to a halt.
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User Comments (9)
Post a comment| jazboy on November 11, 2009 3:53 PM | I have installed windows 7 ultimate on my laptop and found its better than vista and it works faster than vista, too. |
| TomSEA on November 11, 2009 4:12 PM | Be curious to see if MS works these figures into some advertising to bounce against the anti-MS "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" commercials which seem to be running non-stop. |
| JudaZ on November 11, 2009 4:29 PM | ...well no wonder .. i love Windows 7. Its fast, its sleek and it works god dammit.  Using it on a Celeron 1.6, 768RAM old laptop (ok its the latest beta still on this one)...as I´m typing now and it still is fast....its faster then XP on this old clunker. Installed the full release on my media computer...didnt even have to install any drivers..its just worked....and its fast..and beautiul. ...going on my main machine when i get back....no question. Complain all you want on MS .. but windows 7 kicks ass no wonder it sells |
| Guest on November 11, 2009 8:55 PM | I am not surprised it is popular. Anyone who has sufferred
with Vista for the last year or two will want to upgrade
asap. I have 3 friends with top-spec hardware who all
upgraded to 7 RC when I told them about it - thanks to
Techspot for letting me know. What surprises me is that people are surprised by this 'success', and that no-one is crying foul - MS forced people to buy Vista over XP and now Vista users are pretty much forced to upgrade to get their hardware functioning as it should. 7 should be a service pack for Vista users, with perhaps a nominal US$30 fee like Snow Leopard.y And has anyone actually looked at the heavy license restrictions ? MS are getting to be a sick joke. How long before we have to pay a fee to MS every year ? Their business model sucks. And yet people seem happy to pay for yet another MS OS when XP has continued to work well for many years, and still does, and is still the most common OS, and Linux gets better every year FOR FREE. |
| Guest on November 11, 2009 10:41 PM | It is predictable that Windows 7 will totally blitz Vista
once the corporate sales kick in. Years ago when Vista came
out, the corporate market put it on the desks of the
less-than-technically savvy end users that make up the
business sector. And they hated the change! They came up
with all sorts of excuses, and the IT Departments relented,
vowing never to purchase Vista ever again en
masse Vista was never broken, it was just different, and it was only the IT folk that embraced it. The large volume corporate sector made up of end-users wouldn't use it, and this is where Microsoft desparately needed their sales. They were even forced to offer OEM Vista licenses on machines with downgradeable XP installs just to keep the marketshare in place and not lose the OS revenue. Now those end-users are all a bit wiser and realise Vista wasnt broken after all, just different, and are looking for a way to update from XP. The IT Managers also dont want to lose face, after all it was they who reacted to their users wants and needs and built the technical reasons not to install Vista. Enter Windows 7 as a replacement for Vista, and a face saver for the IT Managers. Actually it looks remarkedly like Vista, so what is different now? The users, IT Managers, and CIO's dont want to stay on XP for ever, and they cant go to Vista because they said it was broken. Windows 7 is the way out for them and the way forward away from the aging XP platform. Microsoft knows it, hell, they didnt even continue with their new naming convention but went back to the old "Windows 3/95/98/ME/XP" naming convention. People dont like change. Wait until the corporate sales for new machines with Windows 7 pre-installed are purchased in bulk. Only then, will the non-technically savvy user in the office want it at home. Windows 7 will blitz all new sales histories ever set by Microsoft, and all done by an OS that looks and feels like Vista, and that people didnt want. Superfundi |
| freedomthinker on November 11, 2009 11:52 PM | Now this is nice  Windows 7 is awesome i really liked the
BETA , RC , RTM and now the full release . Its awesome .
But im still waiting for the Service Pack
|
| Puiu on November 12, 2009 3:00 AM | i just installed my free copy of Win7 Pro (happy that students get free stuff) and it work much better than Vista. I'm also expecting longer battery life but i haven't tested that yet. i wonder what the Service Pack will bring to this already good OS. |
| njel on November 12, 2009 7:08 AM | I really think it is a bit early to say if Windows 7 is a
good or not so good OS compare to XP and Vista. As a new product with new graphics enhancements and a new Aero inrterface a lot of people see it beautiful. I just want to see the same configuration in a few months with a lot of updates and tools installed. Will it still be as fast as it is after a fresh install. I am not so sure. I have runned the Beta for a few months now and it is really slower than just after the fresh installation I made. I hope the users of Windows 7 will be honest and tell if really Windows 7 is a better OS than Vista or XP. The chance for Microsoft is that the first impression the people have now is good. It was the opposite with Vista. It is always easier to keep a good feeling. |
| Guest on November 16, 2009 11:04 PM | @ Guest "Vista was never broken, it was just different, and
it was only the IT folk that embraced it." Hum, I don't know what kind of IT you've got over at your company, but the ones I know were spitting on Vista the day it came out, and upgrading XP to Vista never even crossed their minds. It was just a foolish thought to install such trash on a large network. But at least now we have 7, thank God I won't suffer through Vista anymore. |
