Attached Link: Early XP sales less than stellar

"Of course there will be a crack.... but that isn't important. What is important is that relatively few companies and home users are willing to allow cracks into their systems... especially as security problems and viruses are on the rise.

All told my client base puts me in contact with more than 100+ workstations that run some form of Windows... and of the 60+ that now run WinXP I can tell you for sure less than 5 of them were running legitimate licenses for Windows before conversion.

Of those 60+, I know that 50+ of the are legit licenses now (I helped find suppliers for many of them) and abouyt 10 of them were running some form of cracked XP. That is, until SP1 disabled many of the cracks. Then suddenly 5 of those machiens went legit."

Sounds a little contradictory to me. On one hand you are stating that companies would not allow cracked software on their systems. On the other, you are stating that it has been your previous experience that they do, in fact, use cracked or illegal software. Which is it?

Historically, companies have been one of the worse offenders for software piracy, not the home users. Likewise, if you take the stats from BSA and other groups that have studied software piracy, you will know that the US, and most of the leading nations of the world (with the exceptions of, I believe Russia and China), are not the areas in which software piracy is prevalent. Software piracy thrives in the nations and locations worldwide where they generally do not subscribe to the WIPO, WTO, and other international copyright/IP treaties. Therefore, regardless of what is done in the nations that do tend to agree with copyright/IP protection, there will always be those who do not providing the workarounds to whomever wants them.

"So so far, that's Microsoft 55 or so, piracy 5. Of course, MS >DIDN'T< seel some copies fo XP because of the protection - but from my personal experience I know they came out WAY ahead."

WAY ahead? As in the amount of sales they made outnumbered the ones they would have without the protection? I highly doubt this is the case. There are many businesses and consumers who have sworn that they will never purchase XP or any other OS that contains these protection schemes. I fail to see how a relatively small subsection of previously illegal users constitutes enough of a sample to claim that MS is "WAY ahead" in terms of overall sales.

Ref the linked article. It seems that the industry does not agree that XP (in this case, initial sales) has even lived up to the sales figures of W98.

Do you need other sources? How about 10 for starters?

1. Huge Windows XP sales save the world
2. Microsoft: Early Windows XP sales top 95, ME
3. Microsoft goes quiet on XP sales figures
4. Users won't rush to buy XP
5. Windows XP: After the Launch
6. Windows XP - a hit or a miss?
7. Windows XP retail sales fail miserably
8. Windows XP : Sales Update
9. Windows XP Lags Win 98's Sales Pace
10. Windows XP sales lag

Much of the sales claimed by MS are OEM copies. I know many people who have reformatted their new systems and used W98, W2K, Linux, etc, on these very same systems. So, although the OEM sales figures may make the impression that XP has sold in quantities that one could claim are "staggering", I do not believe anyone has conducted an after-market survey to find out how many people actually kept XP installed on those systems they purchased.

"If you can increase the RISK, or make it HARDER then you will sell more of it."

This too is an unfounded claim that I have not seen any indication of its validity. In fact, if you make something HARDER for the end user, you are more likely to push them more toward software piracy than away from it.

"Objective studies? I don't have any that one couldn't poke holes in if you wanted, but then again neither do those who wish to provclaim piracy is not a factor in software sales."

TTBOMK, no one is claiming that software piracy does not adversely affect software sales. However, just like in brick-and-mortar businesses, breakage and theft are accepted business expenses that businesses take on themselves, usually by raising the prices to cover the anticipated losses. In fact, even the "you break it, you bought it" adage used by many businesses is incorrect, however, many consumers generally pay for the broken item because they are unaware that they are not required to do so.