This article is more than 1 year old

Huge WinXP sales don't save planet after all

That was one we made up earlier...

As The Register, tediously, has been telling you for some months now, it's important for Microsoft to be able to claim that XP is the biggest-selling software product of all time, selling X times as fast as the previous (Microsoft) biggest selling software product of all time, cure for cancer, world famine, saviour of the economy... But actually, the only important thing is that Microsoft has some kind of excuse to say this kind of stuff - it really doesn't have to be true in the long term.

And the long term is just a few weeks. Cast your mind back for these few weeks to all of the rubbish Microsoft was putting out following the Windows XP launch, then check out the cold, hard facts NPD Intelect (which got a slot supporting the Microsoft post-launch spinning frenzy) has passed on to Joe Wilcox at CNET. We expect the figures will be generally public Real Soon Now, but at present they are not, so Joe's got them. And we like Joe anyway - he's a good and thorough journalist, and works his patch.

The bottom line of the NPD figures he has is that WinXP is by no means the incredible elixir of life that Microsoft's spinmeisters peddled it as being. It sold 400,000 copies in October, and then 250,000 in November, whereas Windows 98 (which The Register recalls as an upgrade that was somewhat less than compelling) sold 580,000 in its first month, and 350,000 the next.

So actually all of the nonsense about WinXP being the galaxy's most incredible, desirable, fast selling software product was based on pent-up demand (or pre-orders, as they're termed in less frenzied circles) funneled into the last week in October. It was an imaginary frenzy constructed entirely by Microsoft, Windows XP did not save the economy or the planet, Windows XP is just another dumb operating system. And they're not sexy, we told you so.

Windows XP however is a massive success, and we told you this would happen as well. The vast majority of sales, as NPD Intelect points out, are made via new PC sales with the currently decreed Microsoft operating system on board, and obviously the percentage of new PCs shipping with XP as the default OS is already very high. Retail sales of operating systems from Microsoft's point of view are a sideshow that can be used for a PR slideshow, they have no statistical validity, whereas the PC OEM franchise pays the rent.

Although NPD Intelect hasn't yet made numbers for XP sales generally available, it has issued something that you could view as a useful little reality check - top selling software, week of 18th-24th November. In the top ten we've got two Sims, NAV 2002, Harry Potter, Return to Wolfenstein, MP Roller-coaster Tycoon, and then in seventh position, XP Home Edition Upgrade. The biggest selling software product of all time? Right... ®

Related told you so links:
Small WinXP sales boom - not many sold
WinXP sales press releases fly off shelves
Huge Windows XP sales save the world

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like