News - Microsoft sold 4 million Windows 8 upgrades in first three days

[HEXUS]

Also “tens of millions” sold to corporate customers.

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[spoon_]

“tens of millions” of copies of Windows 8 have been sold to corporate customers.

Yeah right! SA agreements are behind those "tens of millions" because you can't get Windows 7 anymore, always gotta buy the latest and downgrade.

[dangel]

Yeah right!

...OTOH... why would you think not?

[whitetop]

not the first time microsofts lied windows 8 is bad very nasty and if it was not for most games i want to play being only on widows i would be on linux were im not forced anything

[Geoff I]

not the first time microsofts lied windows 8 is bad very nasty and if it was not for most games i want to play being only on widows i would be on linux were im not forced anything

And you pay a subscription to play games, and you think Microsoft is very nasty and the upgrade has come out for £25 after windows 7 only being out for 3 years, so who is the money grabbing nasty. Everyone is on this planet to make a living and hey lots of folks out there fleecing your money, at least you are in control if you upgrade or not.

[Brewster0101]

at least you are in control if you upgrade or not.

not....

[j.o.s.h.1408]

what happened to my comment i posted here? i said this:

"For £15 why not"

[OilSheikh]

Anyone can cook up numbers and claim anything!

[drakioned]

I can believe this... I have a copy of Win8 Pro and my other half has a copy of Win8 (pre-installed on laptop) already. If you need a cheap copy of a modern Windows OS that supports TRIM, the upgrade is probably the cheapest way to do it.

[dangel]

Anyone can cook up numbers and claim anything!

Not so much when you have shareholders - that never works out well.

So I ask again, why is this so hard to believe? This is Windows - it's well priced, more secure and more per-formant that previous versions (and tweakable to suit everybody - even those riled up by MUI) - the market for it is v a s t. If you don't like it you don't have to buy it - but it's not some kind of religious choice No need to go on a holy crusade in the face of what is highly probably simple fact.

[McPhee]

Not so much when you have shareholders - that never works out well.

So I ask again, why is this so hard to believe? This is Windows - it's well priced, more secure and more per-formant that previous versions (and tweakable to suit everybody - even those riled up by MUI) - the market for it is v a s t. If you don't like it you don't have to buy it - but it's not some kind of religious choice No need to go on a holy crusade in the face of what is highly probably simple fact.

It's not difficult to believe. Unfortunately, Hexus seems to be plagued with people who's default stance is 'Windows 8 is ####', thus there cannot be any kind of positive news story about the OS without these plebeians bemoaning it. Microsoft say they sold 4 million upgrades? They must be making it up, because certain readers of Hexus don't like the OS. If they don't like the OS then nobody should, and everybody should know not to upgrade. What follows is the reasoning that Microsoft must have made the numbers up, because 'nobody' likes Windows 8 and 'everybody' knows they shouldn't upgrade to it.

Microsoft are the biggest software company in the world. Windows is the world's biggest selling piece of software. Upgrades were available from as little as $14.99. It's not that hard to believe that 4 million people took up the offer in three days - 4 million is a tiny fraction of the whole.

[Funkstar]

And at that price I wonder how many more they will sell vs. people just pirating it?

[saj1977]

Having used windows 8 and the problems encountered finding drivers for hardware I have to continue using windows 7 and wait for more hardware support before I can upgrade to win 8.
From what I've been reading it's not that people don't like windows 8, they're just unhappy they have to not only pay for the upgrade from win 7, but also have to pay for compatible hardware. If you have compatible hardware than for security, user experience, etc windows 8 is the best choice.

I'm surprised only 4 million were sold in the first three days, especially as it is priced at £15 for some and a reasonable £24.99 for everyone else who have a genuine copy of previous windows versions.

[Zerox]

I for one am not surprised about the number of consumer upgrades, however I am a little confused as to the comment about corporate customers.

"tens of millions"

I thought that the corporate sector would be incredibly cautious about upgrading to an new operating system which has a moderate learning curve, hence I would need more details.

I assume that copies refers to actual standalone copies as well as upgrades. If only he could have told us the number of copies sold to consumers, instead of simply upgrades.

I would also like to see, in the case of the consumer sales, what previous edition of Windows consumers have been upgrading from. Would be interesting to me at least.

Overall I am not going to be calling Balmer out as a liar anytime soon, however these figures and the stories behind them are far too vague to be meaningful to anyone other than the press.

[miniyazz]

I'm surprised only 4 million were sold in the first three days, especially as it is priced at £15 for some and a reasonable £24.99 for everyone else who have a genuine copy of previous windows versions.

Count me in for two. Couldn't resist at that price. Only installing one at present though, then once I've got the hang of it I'll look at doing the other.

[dangel]

I for one am not surprised about the number of consumer upgrades, however I am a little confused as to the comment about corporate customers.

"tens of millions"

I thought that the corporate sector would be incredibly cautious about upgrading to an new operating system which has a moderate learning curve, hence I would need more details..

You're right but the fact is there's still a huge lump of XP systems out there and some corporates will, as a result, skip 7 and go to 8. There's no price difference to them (volume licencing). I read a few articles last night saying as much and I can believe it given how many corporate XP machines I see in my work life (sadly). Those that have already jumped to 7 will naturally skip 8 - regardless of it's merits - because of the inherent costs.