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40 million "sold"

Mary Jo Foley for ZDNet:

Microsoft has sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses since October 26.

Tami Reller, the Chief Marketing and Financial Officer for Windows announced the tally during her appearance at the Credit Suisse Annual Tech Conference on November 27.

40 million?!! Wowee zowee!!! But wait — see Foley’s update:

Update: Yes, we don’t really know exactly what “licenses sold” includes and does not. Sold to consumers? Sold to channel? Includes licenses grandfathered in through volume license agreements. I’ve asked Microsoft to see if officials will clarify. If they do, I’ll add an update here.

Yeah. Well at least at “40 million”, we can probably say that it’s not only Microsoft employees buying Windows 8. I think. Hard to say for sure.

I can’t find the pre-2011 occasions when I complained about this, but at least once a year I get fed up with the machinations that someone — often Microsoft — goes through in order to have a big number to crow about.

Not particularly fond of the player, hating the game.