Windows Vista sales to Romanian companies up 77%

Microsoft Romania posted a 16 percent increase in Q1 for licensed sales of the Windows Vista operating system.

“The volume of licensed sales rose 77 percent, quarter-on-quarter,” according to the Windows division General Manager at Microsoft Romania, Tudor Galos.
The volume of licensed systems represents Windows sales to medium and large companies, which have begun investing in Vista. Microsoft sells licenses for operating systems through retail and original equipment manufacturer (OEM), pre-installed on computers.

The volume license (also called upgrade contract) gives the owner the right to use any Windows version for an annual payment, without having to pay extra fees for changing the operating system, for example from XP to Vista.

Dan Bulucea, Microsoft Romania Marketing Manager, says there are Romanian companies that have begun pilot programs to test Vista, while other companies are just starting out.

On the other hand, Galos says that retail partners, like Complet Electroserv (of the Altex group), Ktech, Flamingo, Depozitul de Calculatoare, Maguay and Brinel, have communicated that 75 percent of total Windows operating system sales are Vista.

Flamingo International representatives reported that over 40 percent of computer sales in Q1 had Vista pre-installed.

In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Microsoft sold 220,000 Windows licenses in the OEM system in Romania, of which 35 percent (77,000) were Vista.