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Windows 8 sales steady, hit 60 million since October launch

US-CES-MICROSOFT-WINDOWS8:Windows 8 sales steady, hit 60 million since October launch

By Bill Rigby

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has sold 60 million licenses and upgrades for its new Windows 8 operating system in the 10 weeks since its launch, one of the top executives of the company's Windows unit said at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday.

The figure marks a solid but unspectacular start for Microsoft's new flagship product, which has not managed to revive flagging personal computer sales this year, while new touch-screen Windows devices have not yet captured consumers' imaginations.

Windows 8 sales are broadly in line with those of Windows 7, Microsoft's last operating system launched in 2009, said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows division, in a presentation to analysts and investors at the annual tech show in Las Vegas.

Reller did not say how many of its new Surface tablets - designed to tackle Apple Inc's iPad head on - Microsoft had sold.

Final figures for PC sales in 2012, due in the next week or so from industry tracking groups, are expected to show the first decline for a decade as consumers move towards mobile computing on powerful tablets and phones. Microsoft's app-based, touch-friendly Windows 8 system is an attempt to adjust to that shift.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)

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Related Keywords:US , CES , MICROSOFT , WINDOWS8

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