Just to make things interesting, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is predicting that by the end of 2013 there will be 500 million units of Windows 8 sold – that is 500 million in about 15 months. Whew! Talk about living dangerously. And here is why:
The Guardian newspaper has been following total Worldwide PC Sales and noting that both IDC and gartner have had to lower their forecasts of PC sales every quarter for the last 4 quarters. So PC sales in 2011 fell from a forecast 407 million to about 353 million. the same scenario appears to recurring for 2012. And with the European debt crisis getting worse it looks an origimal 440 million PCs sold in 2012 will be hard pressed to cross the 400 million mark. So quick math => 100 million PCs sold in 2012 and 400million would seem to add up to Steve’s 500 million target.
But wait, Microsoft has only 90% of the PC market and the last 3 major software revisions of Windows and Office have all had serious delays in acceptance in the market place – think Windows Vista and Office 2003 in particular. But fortunately Redmonds PR has set the record straght – Steve did not mean what he said.