Windows Vista: Not Exactly Selling Like Hotcakes at Amazon

In the latest of the High-Tech Strategist newsletter, editor Fred Hickey (sorry, he does not maintain a Web site, so no links for you) notes that consumer demand to upgrade to Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Vista is less than enthusiastic.

Hickey asserted that Vista had dropped off the Amazon.com (AMZN) list of the top 25 best selling software programs, with the highest ranking for any version at 26th place. That seemed surprising, so I just checked. And as of yesterday, the highest ranking for any version of Vista on the Amazon list of best-selling software is now 32nd, for the Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade.

That means Vista is being outsold on Amazon.com right now by such blockbuster software products as Roxio Toast 8 Titanium (CD and DVD burning software), Quicken Willmaker Plus 2007, Dragon Naturally Speaking 9, six different versions of TurboTax and - ye gads - Rosetta Stone Spanish, language instruction software.

I would note that there seems to be more interest in the new version of Office; ranked second on the list is Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007.

The real point here is that the slow uptake for Vista has ripples for the entire PC supply chain.

Hickey writes in his newsletter:

Tech bulls expected Microsoft’s new operating system, Vista, to be a big demand driver in 2007. The PC industry built up inventory in anticipation of a major upgrade cycle. However, we now know that Vista’s initial reception, from both business and consumer customers, was far chiller than almost anyone imagined… Instead of a Vista pickup, it looks we’ve entered a Vista stall.

Microsoft shares today fell $1.20 to $27.87 amid a broad market sell off in which the Nasdaq fell 3.9%.

Comments

[Barry Brown:]

Begs the question:

where did xp rank when it was rolled out?

If Amazon sales were not significant for xp then you wouldn't think that vista would change anything.

2007 Feb 28 03:31 PM

[Dennis Byron:]

I agree. I would think consumers (who are not the only target market) would be going directly to Microsoft or through their PC supplier to Microsoft.

The Express upgrade program (free upgrade if you bought a Vista-enabled PC after 10/26/2006) is not going too smoothly by the way. Maybe Microsoft will be able to recapture the "Technolgy Guarantee" set aside from Q2. See the apology page on HP's site at . I have been unable to even confirm the order I placed in mid Feburary based on a Lenovo PC I bought recently.

2007 Feb 28 05:37 PM