Windows 8 Licence Sales Figure Passes 200 Million Mark

Microsoft has announced Windows 8 – and its shortly-issued update, 8.1 - combined sales have passed 200 million since their debut in 2012.

According to the company, the figure includes sales of tablets and PCs pre-loaded with the OS and upgrades from older systems, but doesn’t account for bulk purchases by large organisations.

The IT giant first announced these figures last week at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference and claims it feels optimistic about the future of Windows 8.

“Windows is a central part of life for more than 1.5 billion people around the world and we are looking forward to the future,” claimed a representative at the event.

In spite of the news, sales figures show that Windows 7, the 2009 predecessor, is still Microsoft’s most popular offering in this area.

Meanwhile, its 13 year old OS Windows XP actually saw growth in its market share - even though its updates will be discontinued in April.

Windows 7 has a market share of 47.49%, Windows 8 and 8.1 together have only a 10% market share.

In fact, when 7 and 8 are compared side by side, 200 million sales of 8 becomes a less impressive figure because it hasn’t progressed as fast as its predecessor. Microsoft’s most recent OS was released around 15 months ago, but just a year after release, there had been 240 million sales of Windows 7 reported by the company.  

© 24N.biz