Though Windows 8’s operating system market share can safely be categorized as anemic, especially when compared with how popular Windows 7 and Windows XP continue to be, that doesn’t mean that Microsoft hasn’t sold many copies of its polarizing, tile-based OS.
In fact, according to Microsoft Executive Vice President of Marketing Tami Reller (via ZDNet), the firm has sold over 200 million Windows 8 licenses since the operating system was released on October 26, 2012.
“Windows 8 has surpassed 200 million licenses sold, and we continue to see momentum,” a Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet. “… Windows is a central part of life for more than 1.5 billion people around the world, and we are looking forward to the future.”
While 200 million sales of anything is impressive, it’s well behind the pace of Windows 7. It took Microsoft 15 months to sell 200 million Windows 8 licenses. Meanwhile, in just 12 months, Microsoft was able to move 240 million licenses of Windows 7, the popularity of which remains dominant. The 200 million figure is a “sell in” number, which includes sales all laptops and PCs sold with Windows 8 pre-installed, along with stand-alone Windows 8 upgrades.
Despite reaching the 200 million mark, it’s abundantly clear that Windows 8 has a long way to go if it hopes to achieve levels of popularity comparable to those enjoyed by two of its predecessors, Windows 7 and Windows XP. Though a significant Windows 8 update is on the way, and should be available for download sometime in March or April, it’s unclear whether that will be enough to significantly boost the OS’s market share.
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