Microsoft: 100 million copies of Vista sold at retail

Microsoft has announced a new sales milestone for Windows Vista: 100 million retail copies sold.

The company made the announcement via an article, which includes answers to reader question by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, published by the BBC on Sunday.

Presumably, Gates will go public with the new sales figure during his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show on January 6 at 6:30 p.m. PST.

The last Vista sales tallies released by Microsoft were in late October 2007, when company officials said Microsoft had sold more than 88 million retail copies of Vista to the channel. Microsoft has sold an additional 40-million-plus Vista licenses via various volume-licensing deals, officials recently confirmed.

Microsoft officials said last year they expected Vista to sell at two times the rate of Windows XP -- a figure they have not been able to realize during the first year of Vista sales.