Windows 7 Sales Beat Forecasts

By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Oct 22, 2010 10:51 pm

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On the eve of the first anniversary of Windows 7's launch, Microsoft said the operating system has exceeded its expectations.

Analysts agreed that Windows 7 has been a success, especially after the lukewarm reception customers gave its predecessor, Vista, but cautioned that Microsoft's fundamental philosophy about operating systems may mean trouble down the road.

"I think Windows 7 has exceeded expectations," said Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft's general manager of Windows product management, in a statement the company issued Thursday.

"We were in such a bad place economically," she added, referring to the recession that dampened computer purchasing in 2008 and 2009. "I didn't know how that was going to play out. I was nervous. But I feel really good about how it's all turned out."

Microsoft boasted that it has sold more than 240 million Windows 7 licenses to date, an increase of 65 million since it last touted numbers three months ago during a quarterly earnings call.

The 65 million licenses sold in the last 90 days translates into a pace of 8.35 licenses sold per second, slightly down from the 9.97 licenses per second sold during a 29-day stretch from June 23 to July 21, 2010.

"I'm pretty impressed with Windows 7," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Kirkland, Wash.-based Directions on Microsoft, a research firm that specializes in tracking Microsoft's moves. "It repaired a lot of things that got off track with Vista, so yes, it has exceeded my expectations."

Well, almost, added Cherry.

"If there's one thing that has not met expectations, it's that Mr. Ballmer keeps saying that it's Microsoft's tablet OS," Cherry said. "I have a fundamental issue with the two approaches [to tablets] that Microsoft and Apple have. The Windows 7 tablet approach is that all the apps that people would want on their desktop, they also want on a tablet.

"Apple says, no they don't," Cherry continued, giving Apple the nod as the smarter philosophy.

"It's hard to say that Windows 7 is not a hit," echoed Michael Silver, an analyst with Gartner Research. But like Cherry, Silver offered a caveat. "Windows 7 is doing much better [than Vista] but not every license they've shipped is being used, either."

Silver has a point. Microsoft may tout 240 million licenses, but many of those are accounted for by standing agreements that allow enterprises copies of Windows 7 that they may not actually deploy for months, or even years, as they retire older systems running Windows XP.

In fact, with all the success of Windows 7, the nine-year-old XP remains the dominant version of Microsoft's OS by a wide margin.

According to the latest statistics from Web measurement firm Net Applications, Windows 7 owned a 17.1% global usage share in September compared to Windows XP's 60%.

Windows 7 clearly has gotten out of the gate faster than Vista. While the former reached the 17% share mark 12 months after its launch, Vista didn't match that until April 2009, two years and three months after its debut.

If the pace of the last three months' of Windows XP's losses and Windows 7's gains continue, Windows 7 won't pass XP in usage share until the third quarter of 2012, two years from now.

Silver pointed to Windows XP's extraordinary longevity as one reason why Windows 7 hasn't done even better. "Organizations, especially ones that still have IE6 (Internet Explorer 6) are having problems getting all the applications their users need running on Windows 7," Silver said, talking about the aged edition of Microsoft's browser.

That's one reason why enterprise Windows 7 migration plans have gone off-track recently. "We believe that many migrations have slipped six months or so from where organizations had planned," Silver said in an e-mail reply to questions. "However, they continue working and many have dates to have Windows XP out by the end of 2012 or sooner."

Some companies, however, will be hard pressed to divest themselves of Windows XP before Microsoft retires the operating system from all support in April 2014, Silver added.

Not surprisingly, Microsoft sees Windows 7 momentum gaining steam. Even with an on-again, off-again economy, Schuster argued that Windows 7 remains one of the top three projects IT pros are considering. "It's just that important," she said. "That's a good outcome."

But Gartner doesn't rank Windows 7 in its top three, instead listing it as No. 7 in a top 10 list of IT trends earlier this week.

Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed. His e-mail address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.

Read more about operating systems in Computerworld's Operating Systems Topic Center.

For more enterprise computing news, visit Computerworld. Story copyright © 2010 Computerworld Inc. All rights reserved.

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Australia trounce India to retain CWG hockey gold

The hegemony continues. The reign of Australia in the Commonwealth Games men's hockey competition was extended to the fourth gold medal in a row on Thursday.

With a display that reflected the effect of method, mobility and of the myriad patterns, the Aussies overwhelmed India with a devastating 8-0 victory before a packed audience headed by the Prime Minister at the Dhyan Chand Stadium.

Absolutely awesome by any yardstick, the Aussies on this day elevated their craft and competence to a new trajectory of excellence, clearly enlarging the chasm that exists between a World champion and the 11th ranked team like India.

Quite predictably, the expectations were high, somewhat exaggerated too by the media, after the win over England.

But India, outplayed and outstretched in every department of the game, lost the plot midway in the first half, flunking the first penalty corner.

Consciously keeping the pace within manageable limits, the Indian team obviously was in a state of illusion of keeping the aggressive and athletic Aussies under some check for most of the part.

Progressively, however, the Aussies escalated the pace, and struck when a neat forward pass by Matthew Swann flabbergasted the defenders. Jason Wilson produced a stunner of shot to bemuse goal-keeper Chettri for the lead.

That opening was sufficient for the Aussies to get a grip over the match and they continued to exercise absolute control till the last second when Glenn Turner smashed in the eighth goal.

Below par

Appalling work in the defensive line, with even Sardar Singh playing below par and Mahadik finding himself at wrong positions most of the time, made Australia's task easier. There was no mid-field work worth mentioning. Even the celebrated Arjun Halappa looked a babe in the woods. Neither Gurbaj nor Prabodh was able to match the speedy runs of Glenn Turner and Jason Wilson.

Under pressure every minute goal-keeper Chettri was lost in the maze of moves. The penalty corner thunderbolts by Chriss Ciriello and Luke Doerner (2) exposed the vulnerability of the defenders.

In the mayhem caused by the Aussies through their capacity to conceive raids in a jiffy, the Indian forwards were reduced to mere spectators. India managed just two penalty corners in the match against the five for the Aussies.

The verdict will go into history as one of the worst suffered in a final. Many were compelled to recall the 1-7 reverse against Pakistan in the Asian Games of 1982.

The only consolation perhaps is the fact that the silver here is the first ever medal of any hue for India in the men's hockey competition in the Commonwealth Games.

Bronze for New Zealand

After displaying admirable fortitude to comeback into the match bridging the goal deficits more than once, England caved in during the tie-breaker to concede the bronze to the spirited and systematic New Zealand on Thursday. Surprisingly sluggish in the early part during which the Kiwis signed in two goals showing a good deal of pressure tactics.

The England defenders were error prone throughout as testified by the two penalty strokes in the three that the Kiwis scored in the regulation time. But the recovery was remarkable. Simon Tindell netted before half-time, and went on to cap a hat-trick.

Fighting the heat and a spirited opposition led commendably from the mid-field by Phil Burrows, the Englishmen forced as many as ten penalty corners in the match. The authority of dominance in the rival area was complete in the second half. But the man the Kiwis looked up to was goal-keeper Kyle Pontifex, whose agility, and anticipation and athleticism stood out in every save he effected from Ashley Jackson, Simon Mantell and Richard Mantell.

In the tie breaker, it was even going till Pontifex made a brilliant save from a push by Adam Dixon.

This is the first bronze medal for the Kiwis in the competition. The team had won the silver in 2002. England has not won a medal after the bronze in 1998.

The results: (3-4): New Zealand 3 (Dean Couzins, Nick Haig, Hayden Shaw) beat England 3 (Simon Mantell 3); HT 2-1. Tie-breaker: New Zealand 5 (Dean Couzins, Phil Burrows, Hayden Shaw, Andrew Hayward, Shea Mcaleeese) beat England 3 (Richard Smith, Richard Mantell, Ashley Jackson)

Final: Australia 8 (Jason Wilson 2,Chris Ciriello, Luke Doerner 2, Simon Orchard, Jaime Dwyer, Glenn Turner) beat India 0; HT 4-0.

Final placings: 1.Australia, 2. India, 3. New Zealand, 4. England, 5. South Africa, 6. Pakistan, 7. Canada, 8. Malaysia, 9. Scotland, 10. Trinidad and Tobago.

Keywords: CWG 2010, hockey gold medal match

Mahasiswa sebagai bagian dari komponen generasi muda, tidak hanya bergerak pada bidang yang bersifat intelektual, tetapi juga bergerak dalam kegiatan yang bersifat ekstrakurikuler yang mengarah kepada penggalian potensi, minat dan bakat. Beranjak dari pemikiran tersebut, beberapa mahasiswa dari Universitas Hasanuddin yang mempunyai hobbi olahraga yang sama, yakni hockey kemudian memulai merintis sebuah lembaga atau wadah yang bisa menampung dan menyalurkan potensi atau bakat para pecinta olahraga hockey. Dan akhirnya, dengan kerja keras mereka serta rahmat Allah SWT, maka terbentuklah secara resmi dan diakui oleh Universitas sebuah wadah yang bergerak dibidang olahraga, khususnya hockey yang kemudian diberi nama ” Unit Kegiatan Mahasiswa Hockey Universitas Hasanuddin ” yang berdiri pada tanggal 9 September 1978 yang berlandaskan Tri Darma perguruan tinggi. Yang merupakan salah satu pusat pembinaan olahraga hockey di Indonesia Timur. Serta mempunyai lapangan hockey yang berstandar nasional. Dan sekarang ini merupakan salah satu lumbung atlet hockey nasional.