Microsoft Corp. (Redmond, Wash.) said it sold 20 million consumer copies of its new Windows Vista operating system worldwide in February.
By comparison, Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor, sold 17 million copies in the two months after its 2001 release.
“It’s a stronger-than-expected start,” said Microsoft's Bill Mannion, a director of product marketing for Windows.
However, some analysts noted that the personal computer market has nearly doubled since XP was released, so Vista sales should be greater. Michael Silver, vp, research, at Gartner (Stamford, Conn.), an international technology research group, told the Associated Press that 51 million PCs were sold to consumers worldwide in 2002; this year, his research group predicts 96 million consumers will buy a computer.