Fron today's Wall Street Journal:
interactive.wsj.com
Windows XP's Retail Sales Are Trailing
Pace Set by Its Predecessor, Windows 98
(excerpt)
Retail sales of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP product continue to lag behind sales of its predecessor, Windows 98, raising questions about whether the new software will help lift the personal-computer industry out of its doldrums, as many had hoped. Still, analysts don't expect the lackluster performance to crimp Microsoft's quarterly profit.
NPD Techworld, which tracks the software market, said Microsoft sold 250,000 retail copies of Windows XP for November, down from 400,000 for October. By comparison, sales of Windows 98 during its second month on the market were 350,000 copies, down from 580,000 the month of its debut, NPD said. Retail sales include new and upgrade XP versions sold as "shrink-wrapped" software in stores, but not software preinstalled on PCs. |
