Microsoft has sold 90 million copies of Windows 7 since the
operating system hit the market last October, according to the
company's chief financial officer. That, Microsoft said, makes the
software the fastest selling OS in the history of the PC
industry.
"We see continuing momentum in Windows 7 to date," said Microsoft
CFO Peter Klein, who spoke Tuesday at the Morgan Stanley
Technology, Media, & Telecom Conference in San Francisco.
"We've now sold 90 million copies, which is just terrific
momentum," said Klein.
Klein said sleek new PCs and laptops from Microsoft partners like
Dell, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard are helping to drive demand for
Windows 7-based systems. "One of the things that's really been a
big part of the success of Windows 7 is the great collaboration
with our hardware partners, the innovation they're bringing to the
form factors," said Klein.
Klein also said enterprises are starting to prepare for large-scale
Windows XP-to-Windows 7 system upgrades.
"Heading into 2010 and 2011, we're starting to see incredible
interest from our enterprise customers to start deployments of
Windows 7. The interest has been very high, and we're now having
conversations with the majority of our enterprise customers who are
making plans to deploy Windows 7," said Klein.
Klein said he expects enterprise demand for Windows 7 will further
increase as large companies upgrade their aging fleets of personal
computers.
"There will be an enterprise refresh cycle," said Klein. "It's not
precisely certain when that will happen and how fast it will
happen, but as we've been saying constantly for the last several
quarters, we expect it to happen this calendar year and go into the
next calendar year, and that will be a really good thing," said
Klein.
Microsoft formally rolled out Windows 7 on Oct. 22nd. The software
includes built-in support for touch-screen applications, and
carries a lighter footprint and less intrusive security measures
than its unpopular predecessor, Windows Vista.