Exclusive: Microsoft Retracts NT Sales Claims
winmag.com
March 26, 1997 Microsoft has egg on its face. After boasting that Windows NT Server outsold all versions of Novell NetWare combined last year, the company has now retracted the claim.
The controversy involves a carefully crafted Microsoft press release issued earlier this week. The release's title stated, "Sales of Microsoft Windows NT Server Outpace NetWare Sales in 1996." It also claimed that in the fourth quarter of 1996, NT Server outshipped NetWare 3.x, 4.x and NetWare Loadable Modules (NLMs) combined. The sales figures, Microsoft claimed, were based on a research report from International Data Corp. of Framingham, Mass.
A closer look, however, revealed that Microsoft had taken creative license with IDC's report. For instance, Microsoft focused only on "new" sales of NT vs. "new" sales of NetWare. That's hardly a fair comparison, since it disregards Novell's huge upgrade business from NetWare 3.x to 4.x.
IDC and Novell promptly cried foul. "NT is not outshipping NetWare," asserted Lee Doyle, the IDC vice president who wrote the report. "We requested that Microsoft make a number of changes to the release and re-issue it."
Microsoft says it made an honest mistake. "There was an error in editing" the original release, according to a spokeswoman for the company. "It was inadvertent." Microsoft yesterday issued a corrected, toned-down release stating that NT Server sales are growing more rapidly than NetWare sales (which is hardly a surprise, since NT Server is working off a smaller installed base than NetWare).
Novell, meanwhile, countered with a release of its own earlier today. In it, IDC's Doyle states: "Novell continues to lead the worldwide server operating system market in terms of total license shipments. This is true for the fourth quarter of 1996 and for 1996 as a whole."
So while NT sales are certainly skyrocketing, Microsoft--despite its claims--still hasn't overtaken Novell on the server.--Joseph C. Panettieri |
