Windows 8 Sales Remain Steady With 60 Million Sold Since October Release

10 Weeks After Launch, How Is Windows 8 Selling?
FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2012 file photo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York. Ballmer is kicking off an international promotional tour on Monday, Nov. 5, 2012 for the new Windows 8 operating system in Israel. Microsoft maintains a large research and development center in Israel, one of its three largest worldwide. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 25, 2012 file photo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his presentation at the launch of Microsoft Windows 8, in New York. Ballmer is kicking off an international promotional tour on Monday, Nov. 5, 2012 for the new Windows 8 operating system in Israel. Microsoft maintains a large research and development center in Israel, one of its three largest worldwide. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

By Bill Rigby

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has sold 60 million licenses and upgrades for its new Windows 8 operating system in the 10 weeks since its launch, one of the top executives of the company's Windows unit said at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday.

The figure marks a solid but unspectacular start for Microsoft's new flagship product, which has not managed to revive flagging personal computer sales this year, while new touch-screen Windows devices have not yet captured consumers' imaginations.

Windows 8 sales are broadly in line with those of Windows 7, Microsoft's last operating system launched in 2009, said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows division, in a presentation to analysts and investors at the annual tech show in Las Vegas.

Reller did not say how many of its new Surface tablets - designed to tackle Apple Inc's iPad head on - Microsoft had sold.

Final figures for PC sales in 2012, due in the next week or so from industry tracking groups, are expected to show the first decline for a decade as consumers move towards mobile computing on powerful tablets and phones. Microsoft's app-based, touch-friendly Windows 8 system is an attempt to adjust to that shift.

(Reporting By Bill Rigby; Editing by Gary Hill)

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