SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft’s new-generation Wmdows7operating system hit the ground running, with US sales in its opening days blasting past those of its Vista predecessor, according to NPD Group.
Sales of Windows 7 in the days following its Oct. 22 release were 234 percent higher than those posted by Vista when it was released into the market, the market research firm reported last week. “Microsoft’s program of earfy low- cost pre-s ales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful,” said NPD vice president of analysis Stephen Baker.
“In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles,” he said. Revenue from Windows 7 sales during its initial days in the market only surpassed Vista by 83 percent due to price discounts and a lack of promotion for an Ultimate version of the new operating system, according to NPD.
The Windows 7 launch also gave a bump to personal computer sales, which nearly doubled from the previous week and were 49 percent higher than the same period a year earlier, but Vista’s launch gave PC sales a bigger boost, NPD said,
Microsoft’s much-heralded Windows 7 went on sale amund the world in October astheUS software giant rebooted after the disappointment of its previous generation operating system Vista.
Windows 7 made its global debut to generally good reviews with most technology analysts and users who tested a demo version praising it as a significant improvement on the much- maligned Vista, Analyst Rob Enderle of Silicon
Valley’s Enderle Group said the
Windows 7 launch was a “big deal for Microsoft.” “Windows Vista was a train wreck” he said. While computer users may not give much thought to the operating systems that serve as the brains of their machines, they axe at the heart of Microsoft’s global software empire that runs more than 90 percent of the world’s computers.
The brighter outlook for Windows did not prevent Microsoft from announcing that it is cuffing 800 more jobs on top of 5,000 layoffs announced in January. Lou Gellos, a Microsoft polesman, said the cuts are being made in offices around the globe. He would not say what specific product groups or job types are affected. Gellos also said Microsoft had already let nearly all of the 5,000 go, in what was the company’s first-ever widespread layoffs.
Microsoft also said in January it would continue to hire in key areas such as Web search. The software maker, based in Redmond, Washing,ton, employed about 94,000 people as of the end of December 2008. At the end of September, about 91,000 people worked for Microsoft, indicating the company has added 2,000 jobs this year.