Windows 7 Shows Strong Initial Sales

[Z-06]

[source: Wall Street Journal]

Windows 7 Is Strong, But PC Lift Unclear

By NICK WINGFIELD

Consumers snapped up copies of Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows 7 operating system during its first week on store shelves, though it's too soon to tell to what extent the software will ignite sales of new personal computers.

Sales of Windows 7 have been "fantastic" since the launch, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said at a press event in Tokyo Thursday, without providing details.

The first glimpse into demand for Windows 7 came from NPD Group, a research firm that tracks retail sales. NPD said unit sales of boxed copies of Windows 7 in U.S. stores were 234% higher during the software's first few days than they were for Windows Vista, the prior version that debuted in 2007. NPD didn't provide underlying sales figures.

NPD's figures don't reflect Windows 7 sales to businesses, an important audience for the Microsoft software. Michael Van Cleave, a technical analyst at CDW Corp., a technology reseller that caters to business, education and government customers, said the company has seen a "strong uptick" in demand for PCs and Windows 7 since the product became available for those markets.

The success of Windows 7 will ultimately be measured by the impact it has on sales of new PCs that come with the operating system already installed on it, which is how most people will come to use it. On that count, Windows 7 performed well, though less so than Vista.

Between Oct. 18 and 24—a period that included sales immediately before and after the launch of Windows 7 on Oct. 22—unit sales of Windows PCs were up 49% over the same period a year ago and 95% compared with the preceding week, NPD said.

Windows Vista initially gave a bigger lift to the broader PC industry in early 2007, helping PC sales jump 68% during Vista's first week compared with the previous year and 170% over the week prior to the launch.

Windows PC sales, however, were 6% lower during Windows 7's first week compared with PC sales during Vista's first week, NPD said. "I think it's mixed," said Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD. "We would have liked to see a stronger jump on the hardware side."

The data were too preliminary to indicate how well Windows 7 will ultimately do. October is one of the weakest months of the year for consumer PC sales, coming too late to capture back-to-school shoppers and too early to tap into holiday demand. Windows Vista had the advantage of coming out in January, during which PC sales are typically stronger than in October, Mr. Baker said.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company is still waiting to get sales data from its partners in the hardware and retail businesses, but she said the NPD figures are "in line with the anecdotal stories we've heard about excitement people have for Windows 7."

Sales of new PCs will likely see an uptick in November, when some retailers begin aggressive holiday promotions. One upcoming deal generating buzz among bloggers is a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. offer for a $298 Hewlett-Packard Co. laptop with a 15.6-inch screen running Windows 7 Home Premium, a version that normally comes with more expensive PCs. Advertisements promoting the laptop say it'll be available Saturday in Wal-Mart stores.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the retailer has been "very pleased" with the interest from its customers in Windows 7. "Our expectations were already pretty great, but it exceeded our expectations," she said of Windows 7 sales.

[Intrepidation]

I've got my copy of 7 Pro

[PONTIAC06]

I bought a new laptop in September and am supposed to be getting a free upgrade to 7, but I haven't seen or heard anything about it since my upgrade was approved...

[Justin Bimmer]

I have 5 licenses

[SAmadei]

I have 5 licenses

I've already got 3 for Microsoft to count, but they all got reformatted, so I put no faith in Ballmer's PR... he would say the same thing if only 2 got sold, just like the ex-Iraqi Minister of (Dis)Information.

I really like the two new Mac vs PC commericals talking about the 7 upgrade... hilarious.

[Delta Force79]

Just got my upgrade disc from Tigerdirect, ordered it Tuesday the 3rd and received it yesterday the 5th. Did the install upgrading from Vista, took about 2 hours and so far I'm loving it. Overall system performance is up and and pinning my icons to my taskbar and the new customizing of themes etc is very well done. I just bought the standard Home Premium which suits my needs just fine and I'm happy with my purchase. Next on the to do list is updating my graphics card.

[Drew Dowdell]

amazing what happens when you put out a product that doesn't totally suck

[siegen]

Ordered a laptop for a coworker a couple weeks ago that came with Windows 7. It's a good operating system, although there is little incentive for me to go to it from XP.

[Drew Dowdell]

Ordered a laptop for a coworker a couple weeks ago that came with Windows 7. It's a good operating system, although there is little incentive for me to go to it from XP.

Speed.

Windows 7 runs 64bit edition VERY well if you've got the ram.

[Z-06]

amazing what happens when you put out a product that doesn't totally suck

And the corporation fixes it soon enough rather than waiting for 30 years on its historical laurels.

[Intrepidation]

Speed.

Windows 7 runs 64bit edition VERY well if you've got the ram.

Major +1. This was the biggest selling point for me.

[z28luvr01]

Got my copy today. I'm going to load it in a VM on my MacBook first, then come up with a plan for getting it on my HP laptop.

[PurdueGuy]

I've been running win7 rc for a while now, and am very pleased. I will be buying 2-4 copies as money allows. Nice to finally move to a real 64bit OS. Hopefully I can also pick up Adobe CS5 next year, which is also supposed to be native 64bit. Zoom zoom.

[siegen]

Speed.

Windows 7 runs 64bit edition VERY well if you've got the ram.

I ran it (W7 Ultimate 64bit RC) for a few months earlier this year and I did like it, however the random incompatibilities and some annoying UI changes got me to switch back, for the time being.

I noticed slightly better performance in some situations, but nothing to write home about. My XP is also streamlined and generally reinstalled every 1-1.5 years. Hard to tell how well W7 will last as it ages, and if it will experience the general build-up of crap that XP experiences (hopefully not).

I know vLite can work with Windows 7, so there is hope for trimming it down and improving performance further. I haven't tried it yet.

Edited November 7, 2009 by siegen

[loki]

i preordered it, pro. got it the...22nd i think. i was gonna wait a month or 2 get a fresh hard drive so i can switch stuff over easily. and then this week my asus mobo just wouldn't post anymore. working on getting that RMA'd, slowly.

[Intrepidation]

Yeah I'm still running RC until I get my new 1TB HD.

[§carlet §wordfish]

I don't have a computer that can run it.

[Robert Hall]

My one Windows machine I still use has Vista, still works fine after 15 months. Don't see a need to upgrade it.

[Intrepidation]

I don't have a computer that can run it.

I've heard people getting it to run on old PS/2 machines, so unless you've got a Commodore 64, you should be able to run it.

[regfootball]

I have a new in case full version 32 bit vista. can i get anything for it for someone who might want it to use a win7 upgrade?

[Intrepidation]

Possible, you could sell that copy and they could get the 7 upgrade. Just have to research prices and make sure the combined price doesn't exceed the standalone 7.

[daves87rs]

Thinking about it....

[regfootball]

Possible, you could sell that copy and they could get the 7 upgrade. Just have to research prices and make sure the combined price doesn't exceed the standalone 7.

even if i fetched 35, 40 bucks for it at this point its better than me keeping it i think.

[NINETY EIGHT REGENCY]

I had to buy a new computer, and I had to wait until Windows 7 was released to buy the computer and have it built from DELL. They would not sell or build it until windows 7 release date. I like it so far.

[2005 EquinoxLS]

I installed 7 in 3 computers that had Vista and the difference in noticable. The laptop especially benefited from it as fars as speed goes. It no longer crashes when I play music off my computer in the bedroom. Mine still locks up once in the while and you cant use a screensaver on mine or it will lock up in minutes. I think thats something to do with the video setup though. I may just get a video card and bypass the video setup it has. Moms bedroom one works better with 7 too. It stats up faster. I also like the way thingas are layed out better. I have wondered about putting it on my basement one. That has XP home but originally came with Millenium Edition. I dont know that it would run 7.

It isnt too bad but I lost the XP disk when we moved. So do I get another XP disk, put Millenium back in?( I dont want to do that). Or try 7?

[vonVeezelsnider]

even if i fetched 35, 40 bucks for it at this point its better than me keeping it i think.

I got Windows 7 Pro for 29.99 from my University. I'm still waiting for it to be shipped to my house but I'm thinking I'll hold off on installing it until maybe Easter so the bugs can be worked out of the OS first. I'm looking forward to virtual XP mode though.

[Intrepidation]

I installed 7 in 3 computers that had Vista and the difference in noticable. The laptop especially benefited from it as fars as speed goes. It no longer crashes when I play music off my computer in the bedroom. Mine still locks up once in the while and you cant use a screensaver on mine or it will lock up in minutes. I think thats something to do with the video setup though. I may just get a video card and bypass the video setup it has. Moms bedroom one works better with 7 too. It stats up faster. I also like the way thingas are layed out better. I have wondered about putting it on my basement one. That has XP home but originally came with Millenium Edition. I dont know that it would run 7.

It isnt too bad but I lost the XP disk when we moved. So do I get another XP disk, put Millenium back in?( I dont want to do that). Or try 7?

AVOID MILLENNIUM LIKE THE PLAGUE!

I got Windows 7 Pro for 29.99 from my University. I'm still waiting for it to be shipped to my house but I'm thinking I'll hold off on installing it until maybe Easter so the bugs can be worked out of the OS first. I'm looking forward to virtual XP mode though.

I've been running the Release Candidate since the summer and haven't come across an issues besides HP's laziness and unwillingness to update their drivers. However 7 had generic printer drivers which loaded automatically and work fine.

[PurdueGuy]

I got Windows 7 Pro for 29.99 from my University. I'm still waiting for it to be shipped to my house but I'm thinking I'll hold off on installing it until maybe Easter so the bugs can be worked out of the OS first. I'm looking forward to virtual XP mode though.

I would expect it to be nearly bug free - I've had almost zero issues with RC.

BTW, this is what MS says the hardware requirements are:

1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)

16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

And people have gotten it to run on lesser systems than that. Anyone that has a computer that doesn't meet these specs needs to start saving toward a whole new computer, not just a new OS.

[Intrepidation]

Anyone that has a computer that doesn't meet these specs needs to start saving toward a whole new computer, not just a new OS.

[vonVeezelsnider]

BTW, this is what MS says the hardware requirements are:

And people have gotten it to run on lesser systems than that. Anyone that has a computer that doesn't meet these specs needs to start saving toward a whole new computer, not just a new OS.

Not worried, It's a laptop with 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, 768MB dedicated ATI etc etc...

[PurdueGuy]

Not worried, It's a laptop with 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, 768MB dedicated ATI etc etc...

Yeah, that part was aimed at some other people who'd commented in the thread about their computers not being good enough for it. I can understand someone saying their computer isn't good enough to bother upgrading, though. I can't believe how some people I've been talking to lately (personally, not on here) have been holding onto & trying to continually update really old computers, like 5-7yr old laptops & stuff.