It’s been almost a month since the official release of Windows7. How is it doing?

According to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, Windows7 is doing very well.   Ballmer notes at the recent shareholders meeting that Windows7 has sold more copies of the operating system than any other OS for a comparable time period. Sales for Vista in the first month were about 20 million copies.

“We’ve already sold twice as many units as any OS in a comparable time frame,” Ballmer said. “Windows 7 is simply the best PC operating system that we or anyone else has ever built.”

Microsoft has had a 234% sales growth over Vista for the same period. But many of the sales were heavily discounted with an average price of $76. The result is that sales growth is only 82%, not the expected higher rate.

In another comparison to the success of the Windows 7 sales, according to Amazon UK, Windows 7 has beaten Harry Potter to become the biggest pre-order product of all time in the UK.

In another venue, Ballmer said that Apple has gained some market share at the expense of Microsoft. He also recognized that  Apple is the preferred technology for the younger generation; at least that is the current urban legend. Ballmer noted that in the current economy and market conditions, 83 out of 100 sales opportunities, Windows is the preferred product.

However, Ballmer felt that there was a lot of opportunity for improvement.

The downside to all this is for PC makers, who aren’t seeing an increase in sales. PC sales haven’t risen as a result of the rise in Windows 7 sales. There may have been a small rise in sales as consumers have upgraded their PC’s but have not bought new PC’s. This may have as much to do with the economy and IT departments may be reluctant for a while to make major investments before they have the confidence to buy new systems.