Microsoft sold 4 million Windows 8 upgrades, says Ballmer

Current CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, has announced that over four million Windows 8 upgrades have been sold already. His follow up statement said that the interest in the new operating system had been “stunning.”

This announcement was made at Microsoft's Build Developer's conference at the company's main campus in Redmond. Ballmer also said that he thought Windows 8 machines were the, “best PCs ever.” This is somewhat counter to a lot of preview impressions given by individuals including heads of gaming companies, but perhaps sales are a good indicator that they were wrong.

As well as high upgrade sales, partner purchases have been through the roof too, with several tens of millions heading out the door. However that doesn't really rate public interest, since those partners are simply providing the latest OS to their customers. What will be telling is whether the PCs those same partners offer, continue to have Windows 8 at the forefront, or whether like Vista and its XP predecessor, Windows 7 will make a resurgence.

While Ballmer was less forthcoming when it came to sales numbers of Windows phones and the Surface tablet, he said interest remained high and that ultimately if you're running Windows 8, you want the companion devices too. This is an ethos somewhat echoed in the more closed system Microsoft has been pushing for with its new OS.

At the time of writing, the keynote speech is still ongoing. You can check it out here.

KitGuru Says: Did any of you guys rush out and buy Windows 8 yet? If so, what are you experiences with it so far?

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