Windows 7 sales top Vista out of the gate

By Dan Neel & Scott Campbell
Nov 7, 2009 5:11 PM
Tags: sales | vista | windows | first | pc | percent

Microsoft's Windows 7 enjoys a better first week than Vista.

In its first week on the market, Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system packed a mightier punch than its predecessor Vista.

Unit sales of Windows 7 were 234 percent higher than Vista during the first few days of release for both operating systems, according to The NPD Group.

Windows 7, which was released on October 22, also generated 82 percent more revenue than Vista's first few days on the market.

Windows 7's total revenue for the week of October 18-24, including presales, was impacted by early discounts on pre-sales and a lack of promotional activity for the Windows 7 Ultimate version, according to NPD.

"Microsoft's program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based research firm.

"In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles."

Microsoft's success, however, did not translate to its PC partners. Although PC sales by companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo were up 49 percent in Windows 7's first week, compared to the year-ago quarter, and up 95 percent compared to the previous week, those numbers couldn't match PC growth during Vista's first week.

PC sales during the first week of Vista's launch increased 68 percent compared to the year-ago quarter and 170 percent compared to the preceding week, according to NPD.

"Vista had a slight advantage at launch, as January traditionally has a bigger sales footprint than October. The other hurdle Windows 7 faced was sales of PCs with older operating systems (XP and Vista) were high, making up 20 percent of sales during the Windows 7 launch, compared to just 6 percent of older operating sales during Vista's launch week," Baker said in a statement.

Two weeks earlier, Baker noted that retailers and PC makers had successfully sold off most inventory pre-loaded with Windows Vista to make way for Windows 7 machines.

"Last month I happened by a Best Buy store and there was not one single PC for sale with Vista on it. Lots of Windows 7 machines, however, all of which were marked 'not for sale until October 22,' Baker wrote in NPD's blog on October 22. "Someone did a great job in the supply chain making this happen. This will give Win 7 a tremendous boost out of the gate."

Glen Coffield, president of SmartGuys Computers, a system builder with five retail stores headquartered in Lake Mary, Florida, said Windows 7 has provided a much bigger sales kick than Vista. "We have certainly seen an uptick in business," he said.


See original article on CRN.com

  • Email a Friend
  • Print Page
Windows 7 sales top Vista out of the gate
 

Copyright (c) 2009 CMP Media LLC
All rights reserved.

 


Comments

Be the first to comment on this article.
Thoughts on this article? Add a comment below.
Comment:
Want to participate in the discussion?
Or log in now to comment


Top Stories
A guided tour of Cisco's proof-of-concept centre
A data centre to test your customers' rigs.
 
Interview: Peter Kazacos and the "wild west" of IT
CRN talks to Hostech chairman and industry veteran, Peter Kazacos.
 
On the Move: March
Updated: Appointments and promotions.
 
Shortcutsall you need to know on...
  • How to run your business successfully 
  • NBN 
  • Windows 7 
  • Unified Communications 
  • Smart Power 
Latest Comments
"Microsoft, CompTIA and others are not a true indicator of an individual or company, and neither ..."
by thesandman Mar 22, 2010 5:28 PM
 
"Informative post. thanks for the info shared here about the Cloud computing conference. Recently ..."
by shruthihr_80 Mar 20, 2010 10:37 PM
 
"Haha...What a sad little man JL must be. Whinges about the NBN now wants in on it, We don't want ..."
by firey1 Mar 20, 2010 4:56 PM
 
"Thanks Glen, I've made those corrections."
by sholtomacpherson Mar 19, 2010 10:33 AM
 
"This result is the law! It even applies to the small telco sellers in the mall of a shopping ..."
by peter Mar 18, 2010 9:10 PM
Polls
Have you experienced a problem when returning faulty goods to online retailers?


   |   View results
Never
  31%
 
Only once
  25%
 
All the time
  44%
TOTAL VOTES: 16

Vote now
CRN Magazine

Issue: 277 | March, 2010

CRN Magazine looks in-depth at the emerging issues and developments for the Channel, and provides insight, analysis and strategic information to help resellers better run their businesses.