Microsoft sells 60 million licences, upgrades for Windows 8

Software giant Microsoft has sold 60 million licences and upgrades for its new Windows 8 operating system in the 10 weeks since its launch.

Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows division, said at the Consumer Electronics Show that Windows 8 sales are growing in line with those of Windows 7, Microsoft’s last operating system, launched in 2009.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the figure marks a solid, but unspectacular start for Microsoft’s new flagship product, which has not managed to revive lagging personal computer sales, while new touch-screen Windows devices have not yet captured consumers’ imaginations.

The latest Windows 8 figure means Microsoft sold around 20 million Windows 8 licences and upgrades since the end of November, when it announced 40 million sales in the first month on the market, the paper said. That puts sales broadly in line with Windows 7, which averaged 19.4 million sales per month in its first nine months on the market, when PC sales were running at a lower level than today, it added.

 Source: MSFN