Windows 7 pre-orders sell-out in Japan

Often companies will claim a "sellout" in order to hype incredible demand for its product. However, these claims are pointless without any firm numbers -- after all, there's a big difference between moving 100 and 100,000 units. Now we're getting word from Japan that the heavily discounted Windows 7 upgrades that went up for pre-order on Friday are sold-out. While no numbers are given, the 17 retailers involved in the pre-order sales, who presumably have no vested interest in trying to inflate perceptions on behalf of Microsoft, report sales as "considerable" and taking only 1.5 days (of the 10 days planned) to burn though the alloted inventory. A quick check on Amazon US and Canada shows the same pre-order prices we saw Friday. Still, it might be wise to take notice of the "while supplies last" disclaimer if you haven't already.

Update: Engadget Japanese tells us that the 30,000 copies were sold according to Microsoft.

[CreepinJesus Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:37AM]

It's Rubberduckzilla!

[blogwhitesitescom Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:50AM]

If they want me to buy windows 7 they should provide a skin that makes it look and run like XP, except with all the performance enhancements of Windows 7.

[richb93 Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:52AM]

Because that Fisher-Price blue of XP is soooo smooth!

Oh yeah, I'd so have that over Aero(!)

[Federaly Posted Jun 29th 2009 5:44AM]

I'm pretty sure you can. You could do it in Vista so they'll most likely carry over this theme. Aside from that you can use Win2000 if you prefer the aged out dated look =/

I love Aero on Win7 so easy and quick!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2009 5:49AM]

I, for one, will be glad to see the back of XP and I certainly don't want to be reminded of it.

[MarkAnderson Posted Jun 29th 2009 5:58AM]

I agree. XP is a horror that needs to be retired.

[Galactor963 Posted Jun 29th 2009 8:37AM]

Eh, I was a fan of the Luna Theme too. I don't think it would work well with the Windows 7 interface though. While I had Vista running on one of my machines, I played around with this:

http://shifty102.deviantart.com/art/XP-s-Luna-theme-for-Vista-58027692

If you have a Windows 7 box you could experiment and see if it runs.

[enbadesign Posted Jun 29th 2009 11:23AM]

You can get themes to make Vista to look like XP but you can't get the XP taskbar and start menu back. You have to revert all the way to Windows 98 classic style to get a functional start menu back and the themes won't work in that mode.

I haven't used a Microsoft designed theme since Windows 95. They are all terrible. If I do get Windows 7 the first thing I am going to do is find a program to enable user themes and design a theme with a 15 pixel high taskbar. The freakin 7 taskbar takes up 1/8th of the screen.

[spin cycle Posted Jun 29th 2009 12:16PM]

Iridium:
There's a built-in setting to make the task bar icons smaller in Windows 7.

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/11/30/how-to-make-the-windows-7-superbar-taskbar-icons-smaller-small-size/

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2009 6:56AM]

ME WANTS.

[BMills Posted Jun 29th 2009 7:37AM]

Well Im glad I got mine out of the way then through BestBuy.

i got a total of 6 copies, 3 for me, 1 for my parents, and 2 for my parents-in-law.

I have a feeling that the U.S. is not going to be far behind, I expect it to sell out by end-of-week.

[kevout Posted Jun 29th 2009 7:44AM]

I don't care about why Microsoft is doing the whole "limited supply" thing; all I care about is that I was able to buy a new OS for $50.

[Solipsism Posted Jun 29th 2009 8:11AM]

the limited supply is because this is a discounted price, it has nothing to do with an inability to manufacture more copies.

[LeStar Posted Jun 29th 2009 7:45AM]

Sweet, Vista SP3 is selling fast. Well at least until people begin to use it.

[Tes Posted Jun 29th 2009 9:09AM]

You know...people have been using it for a while. they release the beta to anyone who wanted it. Those people include pretty much every respected tech blog and none of them have any complaints so far. In fact, glowing praise is all I've seen. But hay...reality would spoil your rubbish post...continue.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2009 9:23AM]

Well, no one in their right mind should waste their money on Vista now with Windows 7 almost here, even accounting for a period of time to ensure that it is really "production ready". If you are still using XP then I would certainly advise sticking with it for the next few months.

[theinept Posted Jun 29th 2009 1:14PM]

@Kelmon

If you buy Vista now, you get upgraded to 7 when it's out at no extra cost. No specific reason not to buy if you ultimately want 7, except for the upgrade discount offer.

[metric Posted Jun 29th 2009 7:55PM]

How's the Snow Leopard Service Pack 1 working out for you?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 30th 2009 6:47AM]

@inept

Who the hell wants to go through the hassle of upgrading only to go through that again in a couple of months time? As I said, there is no point in upgrading to Vista now with Window 7 so close to a final release.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2009 9:55AM]

30,000 copies? Why that's already more than the number of Macs in the world. 7 is already destroying snow kitty.

[kevout Posted Jun 29th 2009 2:23PM]

zomg ur so funny!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 29th 2009 4:34PM]

Shhhhhh. Be respectful.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 30th 2009 6:52AM]

Windows 7 will have absolutely no impact on Snow Leopard. The only thing that I see it doing is stemming the flow of Windows users defecting to the Mac. But clearly you are not going to see people switching back to Windows for it (it's good but not that good) and high sales of Windows 7 is not going to impact your experience of a Macintosh product.

The idea that "Product A will destroy Product B" is just nonsense unless it is going to have a material impact on the other platform. However, I'm sure it gives the supporters something to cheer about for reasons that I cannot fathom.

[stridermt2k Posted Jun 29th 2009 10:43AM]

Not in Japan, but I sure got mine in yesterday.

Woo Hoo!

[briangillespie Posted Jul 6th 2009 11:46PM]

Tens of millions of PCs in Japan and they were able to sell 30,000 copies of Windows 7 discounted 50%? Does anyone really think this is something to brag about?