Windows Vista will have sold more copies than Windows XP during its first
year on the market, but according to
a report by InformationWeek, Microsoft's new operating system is still not
as widely adopted as its predecessor. The publication bases its assertion on a
statement by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, who said during a keynote on Sunday
that Vista has sold more than 100 million copies since its launch in January
2007. That number is impressive, and it surpasses the 89 million copies Windows
XP sold during its first year in the market, but that's not that whole picture.
InformationWeek explains that the size of the PC market has nearly doubled since
XP's launch in 2001. As such, the number of Vista sales was only equivalent to
39% of the number of PCs shipped in 2007-a whopping 255.7 million. XP's 89
million sales, on the other hand, were equivalent to 67% of the 132.4 million
PCs shipped in 2002.
