Ballmer: So far, Windows 7 sales are "fantastic"

Talk about pent-up demand.

Windows 7 has only been out for a couple of weeks but sales so far have been "fantastic," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at a news briefing in Tokyo today, noting that sales in the first 10 days have exceeded the initial sales of any previous release of a Windows OS.

A Bloomberg report looked at historical numbers and found that Microsoft sold more than triple the number of Windows 7 operating systems than it did with Vista and that revenue was 82 percent higher in that time frame. In addition, Microsoft is now more bullish on the PC market that it was earlier this year. At the news briefing, Ballmer said:

Windows 7 is an example of the kind of innovations that I think are important in the technology marketplace

While in Tokyo, Ballmer said he would like to see the search deal with Yahoo - which is limited to the U.S. - expanded to overseas markets. The ten-year deal, which was reached this summer, is still being finalized. Ballmer didn't offer any specific details on particular markets he's interested in or whether Yahoo would be on board with that. But he did acknowledge that Google is the "king of search" and that it will take some hard work to gain traction.