Windows 8 Reaches 100 Million Licenses Sold

by William D'Angelo, posted on 07 May 2013 / 2,420 Views

Windows 8 has crossed a new milestone, selling more than 100 million licenses. This is up from the 60 million sold in January. This figure includes upgrade licenses from Windows 7, as well as newly sold PCs and Windows tablets. There are also more than 2,400 devices certified to use Windows 8 and Windows RT. Microsoft's chief marketing officer and chief financial officer Tami Reller broke the news.

Windows 8 is only slightly behind Windows 7 during the same time frame. It took Windows 7 exactly six months to cross the 100 million mark, while it took Windows 8 an extra 11 days. Windows 7 was released on October 22, 2009 and reached 100 million on April 22, 2010. Windows 8 was released on October 26, 2012 and reached 100 million on May 7.

Reller talked about the first major update to Windows 8, codenamed Windows Blue. Microsoft has received a lot of feedback from consumers and will improve Windows 8 on the feedback. However she did not go into great depth.

"Windows Blue is a codename for an update that will be available later this year, building on the bold vision set forward with Windows 8 to deliver the next generation of tablets and PCs," said Reller. "It will deliver the latest new innovations across an increasingly broad array of form factors of all sizes, display, battery life and performance, while creating new opportunities for our ecosystem. It will provide more options for businesses, and give consumers more options for work and play."

Reller also said that apps on the Windows Store has passed 250 million downloads in six months and the total number of apps have increased six fold. The total number of apps in six months is higher than the iOS had in its first year. However, Google Play did hit 25 billion downloads in September 2012 and the Apple App Store is on the verge of 50 billion downloads.

Reller also announced that more than 250 million people are using SkyDrive and there are more than 400 million active Outlook accounts. Microsoft is also integrating Skype into its Outlook service.


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4 Comments

ArnoldRimmer
ArnoldRimmer (on 07 May 2013)

It would be interesting to know how many licenses they sold since the beginning of february, when the earlier radical discounts ended.

  • +3
Tammi
Tammi (on 07 May 2013)

I hope the "8.1 version" contains a lot of improvements.

  • +1
Baalzamon
Baalzamon (on 07 May 2013)

It's a great OS if people would just get the idea out of their heads from all the negative propaganda everybody is spreading that it is "so much different"..."horrible without touchscreen"...etc As people get more used to it, I really do think they will start to like it...especially after they release the large update that will be Windows Blue.

  • -1
Michael-5
Michael-5 (on 08 May 2013)

My girlfriend needed a new Laptop, and was forced to buy windows 8 since windows 7 is no longer available. After 6 months, she still hates it, and her laptop is touch screen. She mostly uses the Windows 7 emulation anyway, and I think I would hate W8 since I would also be using the W7 emulation most of the time. Why pay more for a crappier version of W7?

  • -2
Zephyrnix
Zephyrnix (on 09 May 2013)

I agree. I've been a beta tester for Microsoft for a good while and a beta tester for Windows 8 for 2 years. It's no where NEAR as bad as people want to make it out to be.

  • +1
Michael-5
Michael-5 (on 08 May 2013)

and I'm using Ubuntu, and loving it :-P Not a single virus in over 2 years, plus Linux is free.

  • -3
Zephyrnix
Zephyrnix (on 09 May 2013)

Really? Bro that's awesome. I'm using Windows 8 and loving it. Not a Single Virus and over 2 years since I got the beta version. Only small difference between us is that my OS has WAY more games, applications and overall worthwhile relevance then Ubuntu. lol. Small world though :-)

  • +1