PC sales spike on the back of Vista release

Stan Beer
Sunday, 11 February 2007 16:03

Opinion and Analysis

Sales of consumer PCs in the US showed a solid spike during the week of the release of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, and PC sales were well up on the corresponding week of the previous year, according to new sales statistics. Are the sales simply the expected marketing spike of launch week or will they be sustained?

According to US figures from market research firm, Current Analysis, sales of PCs shot up 173% during the week ending February 3 compared to the previous week. Vista was launched globally on January 30.

The 173% figure could be considered a trifle misleading given that many if not most intending PC buyers would be likely to hold off buying a PC during the week before the launch of such a major new operating system upgrade. However, the release of Vista appears to have boosted sales of PCs during the launch week by 67% over the corresponding week in 2006, according to Current Analysis figures.

The figures showed that Vista Home Premium PCs dominated the sales, with 59% of desktops and 76% of notebooks, while Home Basic accounted for 33% and 16% respectively. Vista Ultimate which is the top of the range product only attracted 1% of sales.

The figures appear to indicate encouraging news for both Microsoft and hardware vendors - especially HP which accounted for more than 50% of all Vista PCs sold during the launch week. However, given the massive global marketing campaign by Microsoft, which is still ongoing, any less of a result would have been a disaster.

The true test will be in ensuing months when the gloss has worn off the marketing and early adopter enthusiasts are out of the picture. If PC sales in 2007 contine to outstrip the previous year by a healthy double digit percentage, then Vista will have done its job for Microsoft shareholders and PC vendors alike.