Vista Lifts PC Sales by 67% in it's First Week!
Hey Partners, we talked about his earlier that Vista would help drive a new revenue stream for you in a blog about the 18 to 1 return in services. This is a great indicator of supporting that!
Bloomberg
Vista lifts PC sales by 67% in its first week
By Dina Bass
February 9, 2007
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/303036_vistasales09.html
Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows Vista operating system spurred a 67 percent increase in personal computer sales at U.S. retail stores in its first week on the market, according to research firm Current Analysis Inc.
Hewlett-Packard Co. was the top PC seller by units during the week that ended Saturday, with its share rising from about 33 percent to more than 50 percent, according to the report by San Diego-based analyst Samir Bhavnani. Gateway Inc. was the No. 2 seller. Dell Inc., the world's second-largest PC maker, wasn't included because the company doesn't sell through stores.
"It's one of the bigger sales weeks we have seen since 2003," Bhavnani said. The increase compares with sales in the same week a year earlier. Current Analysis declined to say how many PCs were sold in total in the week.
Customers had waited through two years of delays for Vista, the first new Windows release for PCs since 2001. The first quarter typically is the slowest for PC sales. While Vista will provide a boost, it probably won't reverse that seasonal trend, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said.
Microsoft began selling Vista in stores on Jan. 30 after releasing it to some businesses on Nov. 30. About 5.5 million consumers will buy copies of Vista worldwide by the end of March, forecasts Roger Kay, an analyst at Wayland, Mass.-based research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. That will rise to 29.2 million in the fourth quarter.
"There are a few people that are buying it just because it's available," Kay said. "Vista is a mild stimulus for the market."
Bhavnani said the increase in the first week "compares very favorably" with the first week Windows XP was on sale in 2001. XP went on sale six weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, during a time of slower business and consumer spending. Also, XP was available on some PCs a few weeks before the official release.
Seventy percent of the machines sold were loaded with Vista Home Premium, a higher-priced version that analysts expect will add hundreds of millions of dollars to Vista's sales this year.
Kevin Kutz, Microsoft Windows client communications director, said the company is "pleased with the initial response to Windows Vista."