Microsoft has sold 300 million copies of Windows 7 to date, officials said on January 27, the day the company is reporting its Q2 FY11 earnings.
That’s up from the 240 million figure we last heard in October 2010.
Microsoft execs also said that Windows 7 is now on 20 percent of all Internet-connected PCs.
According to a copy of Microsoft’s earnings report, which went out ahead of the close of the financial markets, Microsoft earned $19.95 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2010. Operating income, net income and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $8.17 billion, $6.63 billion and $0.77 per share, respectively. The quarter really “Kinected” for Microsoft, as my blogging colleague Larry Dignan noted.
In November last year, Forrester Research reported that 10 percent of business PCs in North America and Europe were running Windows 7. As of November, Windows 7 was deployed on 31 percent of brand-new PCs purchased by business users surveyed by Forrester. The research firm predicted that within a year, that number will grow to 83 percent.
Update: While unit sales of Windows 7 were strong, overall Windows/Windows Live revenues were down by Windows and Windows Live revenues were down 30 percent from the year-ago quarter. But in the second quarter of Microsoft’s FY10, the Windows unit’s revenues were buoyed by deferred revenues from Microsoft’s upgrade program.
