Windows install base to top 1bn by end of 2008

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 29th July 2007
Comments (12) Stumble
At Microsoft's 2007 Analyst's Day, Steve Ballmer revealed that the Windows install base will go past the one billion mark in 2008.

At Microsoft's 2007 Analyst's Day, Steve Ballmer revealed that the Windows install base will go past the one billion mark in 2008.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has revealed that the software giant is well on its way to reaching one billion Windows users, and he expects to reach that figure by the end of the company's 2008 fiscal year.

"The install base of Windows computers this coming 12 months will reach one billion," said Ballmer. "If you stop and just think about that, parse that for a second, by the end of our fiscal year 2008, there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles, which is at least to me kind of a mind-numbing concept."

The software giant also announced that it had already sold 60 million copies of Windows Vista this year which, according to eWeek, is more than the entire Apple install base.

During Microsoft's annual analyst day, Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner told press that he had numbers to prove that Vista was Microsoft's most secure operating system to date.

Turner claimed that "there have been just 12 serious vulnerabilities reported with Vista over the first 180 days versus 25 for Windows XP over the same period." He then later backed up this claim by saying that Microsoft has seen 21 percent fewer support calls for Vista compared to XP in the same period.

So, it all seems rosy for Microsoft, even though some industry bigwigs beg to differ. Can you remember your experiences when you first installed Windows XP when it first came out - were they as good or bad as your early Vista experiences? Discuss in the forums.
Quote cpemma 29th July 2007, 12:34
Quote:
by the end of our fiscal year 2008, there will be more PCs running Windows in the world than there are automobiles
Disregarding the OS they use, that computers probably already outnumber cars is the one that surprised me. Who was the guy who thought the average industrialised country could get by with maybe three computers?
Quote:
I went to see Professor Douglas Hartree, who had built the first differential analyzers in England and had more experience in using these very specialized computers than anyone else. He told me that, in his opinion, all the calculations that would ever be needed in this country could be done on the three digital computers which were then being built — one in Cambridge, one in Teddington, and one in Manchester. No one else, he said, would ever need machines of their own, or would be able to afford to buy them.
Quote Buzzons 29th July 2007, 13:08
As for the XP / Vista install things, Vista has clearly had a harder life due to the incompitance of the companies that sell hardware//software for it. They had a year or over from Vista going from Beta to RC1 to RTM and yet on the day of launch no one had drivers, i mean WTF! -- Unlike in XP where most drivers that worked on 2k would work on XP. Aside from this gross ineptitude of said companies, vista does have some bugs, however it has FAR fewer than when XP came out (check the patches from MS on XPs first year, and Vistas first year..). Yes, SP1 may fix most of these, however even without it, it is a totally usable OS, and more secure than XP ever was. As for all those that say they will wait to "7" , Im like WTF! it will again have issues, as every new OS does.. so will they then go "we will wait for "8"?" etc... or by that time will they have realised how stupid they were being and have upgraded to Vista :p (As XP support is only going to last another couple of years
Quote Particle Man 29th July 2007, 13:30
I really don't understand why so many companies didn't make drivers to support Vista. So far the thing I don't like about Vista is the amount of system resources it uses just to complete simple tasks.
Quote Lazarus Dark 29th July 2007, 13:37
So, is that one billion supposed to be active copies? Does it include servers?

Details. One billion sold, while impressive, is not one billion in use.
Quote Gman22 29th July 2007, 15:42
Going by the title, I would say it is 1bln in use...or at least installed.
Quote completemadness 29th July 2007, 16:26
i know i left XP alone until SP1 - there were so many complaints and problems with it, it wasn't worth it - SP1 turned it around though and now its a good OS

I believe that's what everyone hopes for VistaSP1 - however, the planned features of VistaSP1 don't seem to support that
Quote DXR_13KE 29th July 2007, 22:18
windows is about the only commercial OS there is....... (not considering mac os, and linux) no wonder they have that user base.

and that picture still scares the crap out of me.
Quote kempez 30th July 2007, 00:19
I really like Vista and find that I hardly ever go back to XP unless I have a particularly badly written piece of software that I need to use. That says more for the software vendors than it does for Microsoft though.

I only wish that we were pushing at X64 now though and getting rid of 32bit :(
Quote samkiller42 30th July 2007, 01:35
I personally like Vista, its stable, quick, and plays all games i want, and runs all programs i want, and i get DX10, what more would i want.
But, that bald guy with his tounge hanging out, i really want to thread his tounge into a lasagne roller:P

Sam
Quote MaximumShow 30th July 2007, 01:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lazarus Dark
So, is that one billion supposed to be active copies? Does it include servers?

Details. One billion sold, while impressive, is not one billion in use.

One billion sold means there are probably even MORE in use, via pirating.
Quote kenco_uk 30th July 2007, 14:10
Is that an american billion or a UK billion?
Quote iwog 30th July 2007, 14:26
i'd go with short scale billion
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