Boxed Vista sales down compared to XP
microsoft Vista February 21st. 2007, 1:39amThe dollar value of retail box copies of Vista sold during the week of January 28 also fell 32 per cent from the value of XP box copies sold during its first week in October 2001, according to figures from Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group released Thursday.
However, retail sales of PCs, virtually all of them sporting the new Vista OS, were up 67 per cent over the same week in 2006. While that is hardly an apples-to-apples comparison — many stores were clearing out their XP inventory in the weeks leading up to Vista’s launch — “it still reflects a fair bit of growth,” according to Chris Swenson, a software analyst with NPD. He declined to release exact dollar figures.
Swenson’s interpretation of the seemingly-in-conflict numbers? Consumers are “getting the message that they need a more robust system to take advantage of some of the new features in Vista,” he said in a statement. Thus, a smaller number of consumers are opting to upgrade their existing hardware with Vista out of fear that it won’t be powerful enough.
Vista’s poor retail sales contrast with Office 2007’s strong first-week retail sales, which more than doubled Office 2003’s first-week sales.
The good news for Microsoft: Consumers who are upgrading to Vista on their older machines are opting for pricier, higher-end versions of it. The average selling price of Vista was US$207.13, up 66 per cent from the average selling price of XP. That was due in part to the fact that more than 30 percent of the copies of Vista sold were the Ultimate version, which lists for $399.
“So, although total dollars were down compared to XP, I think the preliminary data shows that Microsoft’s gamble on a new high-end Vista SKU will help keep dollar volumes from declining as rapidly as unit volumes in the near term,” said Swenson.
Swenson also expects that retailers with “tech benches” such as Best Buy’s Geek Squad, CompUSA’s Tech Pro and Staples’ Easy Tech will see a boost in sales because of customers seeking help with installing Vista. Those services are often offered at attractive prices to consumers, said Swenson, who expects a “bump” in sales similar to that caused by security software.
NPD’s data was collected from a number of retailers, including Amazon.com, Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, Kmart, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Target and others.
Eric Lai
Source:http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=7284
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