Posted on Thursday, January 11 2007 @ 20:58 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Despite initial criticism it looks like Windows Vista for businesses
is selling better than predicted:
The sales outpaced the first month's tally for Windows 2000 and only slightly trailed that for Windows XP, the market researcher said Thursday. Commercial revenue from Vista in December was 62.5 percent above that racked up by Windows 2000 in March 2000, its first month after launch. But Vista's total is 3.7 percent below what Microsoft got in the commercial channel for Windows XP in November 2001, its first month on the market.
In addition, the average price of Vista was about 4 percent higher than of Windows 2000 and roughly similar to that of Windows XP, NPD said.
"I think these results could be classified as 'strong,' or at least 'stronger than expected,'" NPD analyst Chris Swenson said in an e-mail interview. "Although Vista dollars were slightly lower than XP dollars in its first full month, I consider Microsoft's December results to be very impressive, given the commercial-only 'soft launch' approach that Microsoft took with the OS."
The real test will come later this month, as Windows Vista becomes available for consumers.
