More than 20 million copies of Windows Vista have been sold in its debut month, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft said that the adoption rate of Vista is more than double that of Windows XP, which took two months to reach sales of 17 million.

These sales figures must come as a pleasant surprise to Microsoft. Just over a month ago Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told analysts that they were “somewhat too bullish” about the sales of Vista.

The more than 20 million copies shipped include Windows Vista licenses sold to PC manufacturers, copies of upgrades, the full packaged product sold to retailers, and Vista Express upgrades from January 30 to February 28.

Microsoft claims that these initial figures reflect the broad interest in the security and usability enhancements in Windows Vista.

“We are encouraged to see such a positive consumer response to Windows Vista right out of the gate,” said Bill Veghte, corporate vice president of the Windows Business Group at Microsoft.

“While it’s very early in the product lifecycle, we are setting a foundation for Windows Vista to become the fastest-adopted version of Windows ever. Working with our partners, we are helping our customers leverage new tools and programs to accelerate the transition and provide a great user experience.”

What isn’t clear is how many of these 20 million copies are actually being used. Copies sold to retailers may still be sitting on shelves, and copies sold to PC manufacturers may not as yet have found their way onto new machines.

Yes, Microsoft may have sold 20 million copies, but those 20 million copies may sit in the channel for sometime before making their way to end users. Still, it makes for a good press release.

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Entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2007 at 11:58 am under Microsoft, Vista.

Read more entries by John Pospisil.
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