Initial sales of Microsoft Windows 7 have reportedly “surpassed” those of Vista by 234 percent. According to the NPD Group, a combination of pre-sale discounts and a lack of promotional activity for the Ultimate version resulted in dollar sales that were 82 percent higher than Vista’s.
“Microsoft’s program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful,” explained NPD spokesperson Stephen Baker. “In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles.”
However, Baker noted that PC hardware sales faced more of an “uphill” battle – although healthy growth was posted during the high volume back-to-school third quarter.
“Total Windows PCs were up 49 percent in units year-over-year and were up 95 percent over the week prior to launch,” said Baker. “But, PC sales growth during the Vista launch was stronger, soaring 68 percent over the prior year’s sales and 170 percent over the week preceding the launch. Windows PC sales were down 6 percent compared to PC sales during the Vista launch week.”
Baker attributed the difference between Vista and Windows 7 sales to a “combination” of factors.
?”Vista had a slight advantage at launch, as January traditionally has a bigger sales footprint than October. The other hurdle Windows 7 faced was sales of PCs with older operating systems (XP and Vista) were high, making up 20 percent of sales during the Windows 7 launch, compared to just 6 percent of older operating sales during Vista’s launch week,” added Baker.
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