Microsoft said on Wednesday that it had sold 150 Million licenses of Windows 7, seven copies every second.
The extraordinary fact was announced on the Windows Team Blog by Microsoft blogger Brandon LeBlanc. "We are excited to announce that Windows 7 has sold 150 million licenses to-date. As I’ve said before, Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history with 7 copies of Windows 7 sold every second", said LeBlanc.
Microsoft made the headlines in January when it announced that it had sold over 60 million licenses of Windows 7. In March the company hit the 90 million milestone and estimates that 300 million licenses will be sold during 2010.
Microsoft released Windows 7 on October 22, 2009. The operating system has received praise from consumers, businesses and the media. In November 2009, Windows 7 managed to surpass Apple"s Snow Leopard market share in just two weeks. In early February it was revealed that Windows 7 had reached 10% market share in just three months. Windows 7 has also driven an uptake of 64-bit computing. According to ChangeBASE research, conducted with senior IT decision makers, more than 65% of businesses hoped to migrated to Windows 7 within 12 months of its release. Over 50% of those migrating will be choosing the 64-bit route.
Screenshots of a Windows 7 post RTM build showed up on the web in February, fueling speculation that Microsoft is compiling early Windows 8 builds. The successor to Windows 7 will likely be available in 2011 as an ex-Microsoft worker penned July 2011 as the RTM date for Windows 8.
Microsoft is currently readying its first Service Pack for Windows 7. Technical beta testers recently received build 7601.16562.100603-1800. A public beta version will be available in July with a public release in September this year.