PC Data Survey Shows Windows 98 Is Selling Briskly

(July 1, 1998)  A study just released by PC Data estimates that retailers have sold more than 530,000 copies of Windows 98, and more than 180,000 copies of the Plus! 98 companion software.  The Microsoft software upgrade that the Department of Justice has sought to stop went on sale last Thursday.

PC Data reported that Windows 98 sales have matched those of Windows 95 in the first four days of sales.

The Department of Justice has sought to use the courts to enjoin Microsoft from releasing Windows 98.  Many industry critics had said that other than increased stability, and an improved Internet Explorer (which many users had already acquired), it offered little.  Finally, Microsoft did very little to promote it.

PC Data is a Reston, Virginia, company which provides point of sale data on software and hardware purchases.

PC Data Press Release.
Re: Sales of Windows 98.
Date: June 30, 1998.
Source: E-mail from Roger Lanctot, Director of Research, PC Data.

Windows 98 Weekend Sales Push U.S. Total Past Half Million Mark

Reston, Va. – June 30, 1998 – Retailers kept the Windows 98 Upgrade ball rolling this weekend, as sales of the operating system upgrade topped the half-million unit sales mark, according to projections based on actual sales reported to PC Data by U.S. retailers.

Through Sunday, U.S. retailers have sold more than 530,000 copies of Windows 98 and more than 180,000 units of the Plus! 98 companion software. This equals the phenomenal sales record set by Windows 95 in its first four days of sales.

"Windows 98 Upgrade has matched the extraordinary sales notched by Windows 95 in its first few days," said Roger Lanctot, PC Data Director of Research. "Those who predicted otherwise were wrong. Very simply, there is considerable pent-up demand for Windows 98. The proof is in the numbers."

Based in Reston, VA, PC Data has been providing point-of-sale data since 1991 and has become the only comprehensive source of software and hardware sales information. The company provides software and hardware vendors with the point-of-sale data and analysis which forms the underpinning of their strategic decision-making process. PC Data supplies sales information to more than 800 subscribers at software and hardware firms, which account for nearly 95 percent of total computer industry sales. The company will launch its @PCData web and software application auditing program late this summer with the first reports available in the fall. PC Data can be contacted via its web site at www.pcdata.com or by phone at (703) 435-1025.