It’s official: Windows Vista has sold more copies in its first month than Windows XP in the same timeframe, but in 2007 is this so surprising?

This is said to more than double the “initial pace of sales” that Windows XP clocked up in a similar timeframe, with that number reaching 17 million after two months of XP sales, although that was 6 years ago, in a time when the world was recovering from the tech dotcom wreck, and dealing with the aftermath of 9/11.

Nevertheless, while some analysts aren’t happy and say that Microsoft should have sold even more copies of Vista if they truly want to claim success, given the much wider popularity of computers and the Internet today, more than 20 million copies is a strong number that puts Microsoft on track to sell more than 200 million copies within the first two years.

Microsoft also claim that “new tools and programs ease the transition for consumers”, that over 4,500 “Certified for Windows Vista” products are now available (with 2,500 of those coming since the January 30 launch), and that, since the included 19,500 Vista drivers on the Vista install DVD became available, new drivers have been delivered at a rate of more than 1,600 per month – which must be since the November 30 launch of Vista – that there are now more than 27,000 Vista drivers available.

Given that Vista was finished in early November, if we count 1,600 drivers for November, then another for December, then January, February and then March, 1,600 x 5 months is 8,000, and if you add 19,500 drivers plus 8,000, you get 27,500, making sense of Microsoft’s figures, lest you thought they meant since the January 30 launch, which they clearly could not have as they are claiming more than 27,000 drivers now available.

Given that previous articles of mine, including an open letter to Bill Gates, have virtually pleaded for a massive effort to make Vista drivers available, it seems that Microsoft, of their own accord and no doubt with the assistance of all of their hardware and software partners, have indeed been beavering away furiously to get those drivers out.

Certainly, for my own computer, a Fujitsu T4210 Tablet PC, all Vista drivers are indeed now available, and the driver issues I experienced in the past have now all disappeared – something that, while joyous for me, is not something that everyone is yet experiencing, although if Microsoft keeps on pumping out new drivers at a rate of 1,600+ a month, driver issues for most popular hardware could soon be a thing of the past for most users, and that’s a very good thing.

But back to the claim of more than 20 million copies of Vista. Bill Veghte, corporate vice president of the Windows Business Group at Microsoft, said in the press release that: “We are encouraged to see such a positive consumer response to Windows Vista right out of the gate. 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.”

But those 20 million copies aren't all boxed copies - please read onto page 2 for the conclusion!