Microsoft Sold 40 Million Vista

Windows Vista was released on January 30 and it was expected to get very popular, but 40 million is much more than Microsoft expected. About 95 percent of PC users have Windows operating system installed, and most of them are getting updated to Vista. This is the largest update in last five years.

"We've really been amazed at the customer response," Gates said. "We knew that Vista would become the standard version of Windows. We knew that the industry was stepping up to take advantage of those capabilities. But what's happened in the last 100 days has been beyond our expectation."

Since Microsoft does not release hardware of its own, one of the main goals of the company is to provide with better software that will enable different PCs and hardware devices work together, to be compatible. This question was actively discussed during the conference with the major PC, device, software and driver companies that were invited to the conference.

Microsoft showed its light bulb shaped PC, the winner of Next-Gen PC Design Competition and a device like office phone with a small screen, that can modify address book (find, change, add, remove contacts) and make phone calls. Microsoft also showed upcoming mobile phone models from different manufacturers, that are compatible with Office Communicator business software. Gates said, that PCs are turning into phones, and phones are turning into PCs.

To prove how important is device compatibility, Microsoft demonstrated a wireless digital camera, which can take a photo and immediately make the photo available on PC's screen.

Microsoft also talked about its new Microsoft Server Software 2008 to be available at the end of this year. Gates also named three more hardware manufacturers that make hardware for the new server software: Gateway, LaCie and Medion International.

By Ruzan Harutyunyan for HULIQ