Microsoft says Windows 2000 sales are strong
SEATTLE, June 27 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - news) said on Tuesday that sales of its flagship Windows 2000 operating system were strong and that the first update to the software would be released soon.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said it estimated licensed sales of Windows 2000 would reach 3 million units by June 30.
``Windows 2000 has been extremely well received by the industry in terms of customer sales figures and phenomenal support from leading OEMs (original equipment manufacturers),'' John Frederiksen, general manager of Microsoft's PC Experience Group, said in a statement.
Windows 2000 was launched in February. The operating system cost over $1 billion to make and marked Microsoft's most serious attempt to capture more of the business computing market where rivals like Sun Microsystems (NasdaqNM:SUNW - news) and IBM (NYSE:IBM - news) are dominant.
The company did not provide a breakdown of sales between the Professional version that sits on regular desktop computers and the industrial-strength Server and Advanced Server editions that power the workhorse machines that underpin the Internet and business networks.
Analysts say those server products are vital to Microsoft's drive to focus more on the corporate market and position itself to provide Web-based services and products down the road.
Microsoft also said it would release the first service pack, dubbed SP1, that will fix bugs and errors in Windows 2000 this summer as previously planned. It did not give a specific date, and company officials were not immediately available to comment.
The service pack is expected to further drive sales by attracting customers who were wary of buying an all-new product and who have been waiting on the sidelines until the most common bugs are fixed.
``SP1 will be yet another major milestone for customers of Windows 2000,'' Frederiksen said.
``We have seen across-the-board adoption among organisations that have plans to and/or are now deploying Windows 2000, and we expect that during the remainder of this calendar year and in 2001, Windows 2000 growth on the business PC will continue to accelerate,'' he said.
Michael Dell, founder and chief executive of Dell Computer Corp. (NasdaqNM:DELL - news), the No. 1 U.S. personal computer maker and one of Microsoft's biggest customers, said Windows 2000 sales would pick up later in the year.
``It's going as well as we might expect for an operating sustem targeting large businesses,'' Dell told a media briefing in New York on Tuesday.
``It's more loaded towards the latter part of this year and next year, because of considerations such as testing and so on. My sense is that the customers that are anxious to implement it are very, very pleased,'' Dell said.
Microsoft gave no details of the most powerful and priciest version of Windows 2000, called Data Centre, that was scheduled to be released in late summer and is aimed at the most demanding computer systems such as those in banks or scientific institutions. |
