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Ballmer: Windows 8 Will Have 500 Million Users by End of 2013

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on Tuesday predicted that 500 million users will have Windows 8 devices by the end of next year.

Ballmer gave the lofty forecast in a speech at the Seoul Digital Forum, according to a report by France-based newswire AFP RelaxNews.

"It's really, in some senses, a dawning of the rebirth of MS Windows...It's certainly the most important piece of work we've done," Ballmer is reported to have told attendees.

Ballmer characterized Windows 8 as the "deepest, broadest and most impactful" version of Windows in Microsoft's history. Indeed, Windows 8, with its Metro-style interface that will run on both tablets and PCs, is a substantial departure for Microsoft's OS.

During the same talk, Ballmer estimated 350 million Windows 7-based devices will ship this year, AFP said. Microsoft has already shipped 525 million copies of Windows 7 as of January, the last time the company released sales figures for its current client OS.

Ballmer's remarks come as Microsoft is expected to issue the "release preview" of Windows 8 next month.

It remains to be seen whether Windows 8 can in fact come close to that "500 million" figure, given the steep competition from Apple, which has sold 67 million iPads since the debut of its tablet two years ago.

A Microsoft spokeswoman on the Windows team was unable to confirm AFP's report but said she believed what Ballmer meant was that with 525 million Windows 7 PCs now in use, they can all be upgraded to Windows 8 when it ships. According to various published reports, Windows 8 will be available in November.

About the Author

Jeffrey Schwartz is editor of Redmond magazine and also covers cloud computing for Virtualization Review's Cloud Report. In addition, he writes the Channeling the Cloud column for Redmond Channel Partner. Follow him on Twitter @JeffreySchwartz.

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Reader Comments

Sun, Oct 28, 2012 John

I currently run Windows XP on my home computer and would like to correct the genius that said XP's security is out of date. That statement is half true. Many confirmed reports have suggested that Microsoft will extend XP's security sometime through 2014. In fact, many businesses and homeowners continue to use the 11 year old operating system for their day to day operations. I knew Vista was a piece of garbage based on its wide variety of problems, which was mostly related to memory and compatibility issues, so I decided to wait it out and see if Microsoft could come up with something better. Fortunately, that's when Windows 7 rolled around, which has been described as "something that Vista should've been." It handles much better than Vista, and offers nifty features like XP had as well, although I do wish that Microsoft would've re-instated XP's wonderful Disk Defrag tool, which gave you everything from total disk space, files being compressed, and the total time it takes to finish the process. Windows 7's defragmenter (which was essentially a carryover from Vista), just tells you its defragmenting the hard drive, and that's basically it....which is rather cheap. I really don't have any comment on Windows 8. Although I believe something like this might be fine for a tablet, to be used on a regular desktop computer is atrocious. Why move away from things like the mouse, and instead rely more on touch screens? Smartphones and tablets already have that sector covered. Getting rid of the Start menu was a bonehead move as well. Why make it more difficult for users and tell them to "get used to it" when they (the user) can simply opt out for something else? I hope to God that the new computers being shipped out from Dell, HP, etc., that come with Windows 8, can be rolled back to Windows 7, because I, for one, do not plan on using it. My computer has something Windows 8 doesn't. A Start menu that can get you to the Control Panel within a couple of clicks. In order to get to the Control Panel on Windows 8, you have to open the "Search charm", type in control panel into the search box (without quotations), click or tap apps, and then click or tap "Control Panel" in the search results, which is way too many steps just for accessing something as simple as the Control Panel. No thanks.

Tue, Jun 12, 2012

I tried the pre-release, and I'm not impressed. Windows 8 is worse than Android on the tablet, and worse than Windows XP on the PC. I think the Microsoft double-speak: "Upgrade to 7 to get ready for windows 8" translates to: "Oh crap, we wasted all this time on Win8 and it sucks, so.. upgrade to Win7 while we figure out what to do next". Forbes was right. Ballmer should be fired. Windows 8 is the straw that broke the MS camel back.

Mon, Jun 11, 2012 James Dean Dallas Texas

You Windows' gurus at Microsoft could not have gotten so stupid in such a short time. Could you? DO you really think that following is the new leading? OR are you just determined to bring down your empire? Gates had best return and fire you idiots. Windows 8 might be a great OS but thinking that touch screen is going to take over the desk, you guys don't really do any work on your computers do you? Yes it's great for the tablet but you had best stop eating those Apples and start looking out of your windows. When I think about all the money I wasted on MS certs...

Thu, May 24, 2012 darkprofit

Microsoft may achieve this goal, but it will do so by bullying their OEM's. Forcing this terrible OS down the consumers throats, suing anyone or any organization that threatens it, you know the usual Microsoft business practices. It's time for Ballmer to step down!!!!!!

Thu, May 24, 2012

500 million licenses maybe, acutal users, I don't think so. No plans for our company to use Win 8 at this time, though due to agreements, we will count toward the product count. Win 8 has some good ideas however many bad ideas which will doom it. Waiting on Windows 9 to fix everything. In the mean time Windows 7 works great!

Wed, May 23, 2012

One area not discussed is that previously certified applications for Window 7 and other earlier Windows releases do not put icons on the desktop (per the certification requirement), and since there is no Start button, all of these applications become invisible under Windows 8. INCREDIBLY STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, DECISIONS. So, all previously certified Windows 7 applications will not install correctly in Windows 8. BRILLIANT!

Wed, May 23, 2012

Congrats to Microsoft, but my 5 copies of Win 7 will certainly NOT be included in his count.

Wed, May 23, 2012

The Win8 Metro interface is ugly, wastes tons of space, is indecipherable, and discards 10 years of advancement in GPUs. It also discards all of the existing user paradigms starting with Windows 1.0 in favor of an uninspired bunch of blocks that are reminiscent of 1980's technology. Pong anyone? This is clearly the dumbest thing that Microsoft has created and it will probably cause great damage to the company as a whole. Sad and stupid management decisions and a terrible implementation.

Wed, May 23, 2012 JD

Only possible if there are sales of a lot more than 500 million new computers. In this economy I think not.

Wed, May 23, 2012

Let's see. Kin failed, Kin2 failed, Mobile 7 based on Kin has failed, and now Windows 8 based on Kin will fail too. I don't know...do you see a pattern here where what works is discarded and failed patterns are repeated? Poor Steve...he is listening to tthe wrong people at Microsoft.

Wed, May 23, 2012

MS may reach those targets by default. The door on WinXP is closing and it's security is out of date. We are forced to Win8 by momentum. Win8, however, seems innovative only by comparison to the lame work that MS did on Vista and Win7. It certainly doesn't look inovative in coparison to what other organizations are doing now, especially in the tablet arena. MS needs a reality check. Fixing broken things and making a bunch of improvements, does not equal innovation. Microsoft used to innovate - once upon a time. That is how they gained their original reputation. Now, they seem to have lost their way.

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