Despite critics, users are adopting Windows 8 in record numbers surpassing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion

Tami Reller, Microsoft’s chief marketing officer and chief financial officer, pleased with Windows 8 sales

Tami Reller, Microsoft’s Vice President, told an investor conference that Microsoft sold 40 million copies of Windows 8 in the first month since it was released.

Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7, Windows Vista and Apple’s OS X.

“The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far,” Reller told the Credit Suisee 2012 Annual Technology Conference in Scottsdale Arizona on Tuesday.  

Up to the first month anniversary of Windows 8 most analysts and industry pundits had labeled Windows 8 the new Vista predicting Microsoft’s failure.

Having used Windows 8 for 10 months, I knew the put-down of Windows 8 was wrong. Now the numbers prove that Microsoft was right in re-designing the Windows 8 interface.

“Windows 8 upgrade momentum is outpacing that of Windows 7,” said Reller. It took Windows 7, the most popular computer operating system of all time, 2 months to achieve 60 million in sales. Windows Vista only sold 10 million copies in the first month, putting Windows 8 at a 4 times greater adoption rate by users.

Passing Apple OS X

Windows 8 installations now exceed the 23 million users of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion which was released in July 2012.  Apple has all versions of the OS X on 66 million computers which means Windows 8 is likely to pass OS X in popularity within the next 4-6 weeks. (ArsTecnica)

Critics point to the low price of $40 to $70 for Windows 8 upgrades while ignoring the ultra low $20 price to upgrade OS X 10.8.

Users adopting Windows 8 Start Screen

Using 1.5 billion customer impressions through the Windows Experience Program, Reller told the audience that Windows 8 users are exploring the new interface and quickly learning the most important features.

Windows 8 Start Screen

“When people experience Windows 8, they do find it is easy to get started and fun to learn.“We know from the data we’re getting in that customers do indeed get the product.”

Referring to the controversial Start Screen, Reller said “So we know this is home base for customers, as we intended it to be.”

Customers quickly learn to personalizing the start screen. “Within the first three weeks, customers on average added 19 tiles to the ones that are already installed on the system.” Computerworld.

“Also, 90 percent of customers use the charms, which are OS features such as search and share that can be run within different apps. They use these charms on average two to three times each time they run the device. Over 85 percent use the desktop during their first use and about half visit the app store. The number of apps in the store has doubled since the OS launch. Several apps have already been downloaded more than a million times.”

This confirms my experience that Windows 8, while new and different, is relatively easy to use and customize for the user.

Windows Store apps popular

Brandon LeBlanc, who writes Blogging Windows, added “Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 7 in terms of upgrades. We built Windows 8 to work great on existing Windows 7 PCs. And we also set out to make upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8 super easy.”

“The launch of Windows 8 at the end of October also saw the grand opening of the Windows Store. There were more apps in the Windows Store at launch than any other app store at their launch and since then, the number of apps in the Windows Store has doubled.”

“A number of apps in the Windows Store have crossed the $25,000 revenue mark and the developer keeps 80% of the revenue they make off downloads for the life of their app. A lot of great new apps have been added to the Windows Store since launch such as CBS, ABC News, ABC Family, Engadget, Flixster, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network), Vimeo and my (current) personal favorite – Top Gear.”

Tami Reller  “serves as Corporate Vice President and Chief Financial Officer & Chief Marketing Officer for Windows and Windows Live at Microsoft Corporation. Ms. Reller served as Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions Inc. since July 12, 1999. Ms. Reller serves as Chief Financial Officer of Windows Division at Microsoft Corporation. Ms. Reller serves as Corporate Vice President Microsoft Business Solutions Group at Microsoft Corporation. (Bloomberg)