While Windows 8 is all set to make an October entry, Microsoft believes that devices running Windows 7 will still be in high demand. The company reported to Bloomberg that it will ship 350 million devices running Windows 7 software this year.
If the milestone is achieved, Windows will become "the most popular single system," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft, at a forum in Seoul, South Korea. Ballmer, however, did not provide figures for comparison.
Windows 7, which has sold more than 350 million licenses in just 18 months after its launch, has always been a hit among the customers. And, "The momentum we've seen and continue to see with Windows 7 is incredible," Microsoft had announced at the time.
Despite the dominance of tablets in the current market, Windows 7 has managed to capitalize a particular section of consumers and helped the company earn a third-quarter profit last month, exceeding prior estimates.
In April, Microsoft announced that Windows and Windows Live Division earned revenue of $4.62 billion, a 4 percent increase from the last year third quarter. The company also added that Windows 7 adoption in enterprise desktops grew up to 40 percent worldwide.
"We saw strong demand for our business desktop and infrastructure offerings," said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft, at the announcement of earnings report.
Meanwhile, the company's latest offering, Windows 8, is expected to hit shelves around October. The latest version that can be used for touch-screen devices will help the world's largest software maker to challenge Apple's dominance in tablet computers.
A recent report from IDC shows that global PC shipment will see a growth of 5 percent in 2012 after gaining 1.8 percent last year and the release of Windows 8 and demand for ultrabooks and notebooks would be the reason for the growth. Gartner Inc. also estimated that more than 103 million tablet devices will be sold in 2012 and the sales figure will be tripled to 326.3 million in the next three years. The company also forecasts that Apple's share will drop to 46 percent by 2015 and Microsoft will acquire 11 percent.
