• Only 244 copies of Vista in China?

    Posted on April 19, 2007 at 20:54 CDT by • Comment in the Forums

    I was going to avoid posting about this “news” item, but my BS sensor is pegged out in the red zone, and I can’t let it pass.

    Many news outlets are repeating a post on Newlaunches.com that says Microsoft China has only sold 244 copies of Vista. (WARNING: if you click through to the Newlaunches.com site, they have an obnoxious, noisy ad banner.) The Newlaunches site references a Japanese language site as the apparent source of the “news.”

    Here’s what Newlaunches says: Microsoft spent millions of dollars advertising its next generation OS ‘Windows Vista’ in China, in fact the IT juggernaut threw up the biggest Vista Ad on the 421 meter high Jin Mao tower in Shanghai China. However after 2 weeks (Jan 19 to Feb 2) from launch Microsoft managed to sell a mere 244 copies of Windows Vista. Software piracy is rampant in the middle kingdom and a pirated version of Vista sells for a mere $1 on the streets. The following numbers are quoted by Windows Vista chief distributor in Bejing.

    I don’t buy it for all sorts of reasons. The launch date isn’t right. Microsoft doesn’t keep tabs on direct retail sales in any other country, and I can’t figure out why they’d do so in China. Piracy is rampant where I live, too (every street corner in Patong has pirate copies of everything you could imagine), but CDs cost $2 to $3. And I can’t imagine why the “Vista chief distributor in Beijing [note typo]” would quote anything so inflammatory.

    Anyway, you might want to click through to the noisy Newlaunches site, if only to look at the imaginative packaging for pirate copies of Vista (including “Vista Ulimate” and “Vista Professional”). We get some howlers in Thailand, too. My favorites: the “Windows XP Professional Corporate Edition” CD that also includes ACDSeem Adobe Reader, AnyDVD, the McAfee suite, SerenScreen, Total Commander, TweakNow, WinRAR, WinZIP, and “Windows Messenger Disable”; and the “Complete Windows” CD that includes every version of Windows from Windows 1.0 to “Windows XP Service Pack “2A”. That’s a collector’s item.

    UPDATE: Microsoft denies the story, of course, but doesn’t give any firm sales figures in rebuttal.

    Windows News
DON'T MISS OUT!
Subscribe to the Free Newsletter
We promise not to spam you. Unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid email address

View the Forum

  • Recent Replies
  • My Replies
  • My Active Topics
  • New Posts in the Last day
  • Private Messages
  • Knowledge Base
  • How to use the Forums
  • All Forums

    • Recent Topics

    My Profile

    June 2025
    S M T W T F S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930  

    Remembering Woody

     

    Want to Advertise in the free newsletter? How about a gift subscription in honor of a birthday? Send an email to sb@askwoody.com to ask how.

    Mastodon profile for DefConPatch
    Mastodon profile for AskWoody

     

    Home • About • FAQ • Posts & Privacy • Forums • My Account
    Register • Free Newsletter • Plus Membership • Gift Certificates • MS-DEFCON Alerts

    Copyright ©2004-2025 by AskWoody Tech LLC. All Rights Reserved.