Microsoft's Windows 8 sales are big -- just not big enough

Windows 8 gave Microsoft a bump last quarter, though its impact was more muted than the software giant might have liked.

Windows sales rose 24% to $5.8 billion in the quarter that ended Dec. 31. Microsoft unveiled its years-in-the-making Windows overhaul on Oct. 26.
The gain ended a streak of four straight quarters in which Windows sales declined year-over-year. But it pales in comparison to prior launches of the operating system: Windows sales soared 76% during the quarter that Windows 7 launched, and rose by 65% when Windows Vista debuted.

Lisa Nelson, Microsoft's investor relations director, saidWindows 8 sales should be put into perspective. PC sales have slumped lately, and the computer market is very different now than it was when previous versions of Windows launched.

Nelson said that a more apples-to-apples comparison would be to measure how much Windows sales have outpaced overall PC sales. The gap between those figures was roughly the same during Windows 8's launch as it was during the debuts of Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/24/technology/enterprise/microsoft-earnings/index.html