A few days ago, Tami Reller, Microsoft's chief marketing and financial officer for Windows, announced that the company had sold
40 million Windows 8 licenses since October 26 -- the day the new operating system launched. All puns aside, on the surface that seems pretty impressive, but
recent articles by CNET and others indicate a much shakier start for
Windows 8 and the hardware hinged to it.
On November 29, an article by the New York Times
cited poor sales figures for both Windows PCs and tablets from NPD, the retail sales tracking firm, painting "a darker picture of the Windows 8 introduction."
According to NPD, unit sales of Windows PCs in retail stores in the U.S. fell 21 percent in the four-week period of October 21 to November 17 compared with the same period a year ago. And sales of Windows
tablets have been "almost nonexistant" (less than 1 percent of all Windows 8 device sales).
