Microsoft: 240 million licenses of Windows 7 sold in its first year

Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of the launch of Windows 7. To celebrate, Microsoft is releasing new numbers, claiming that the company has sold 240 million licenses of the product to date.
From an October 21 blog post to the Windows Team Blog:

“Windows 7 is the fastest selling operating system in history. As of September, Windows 7 was running on 93% of new consumer PCs and has over 17% global OS market share (according to Net Applications as of October 1st). There is an amazing array of great PCs out on the market today. Six months after launch, 100% (over 18,000) of our OEM partners were selling Windows 7 PCs versus 70% for Windows Vista PCs at a comparable time period.”

Earlier this year, analysts were estimating that Microsoft might hit the 300-million-sold number with Windows 7 licenses by the end of this calendar year. It’s looking possible….
I bought a Windows 7 PC last October and it has treated me well. (Like Microsoft PC evangelist Ben Rudolph, I love my super-long-battery-life ASUS UL30 (I have the UL30A).
For all the uptake of Windows 7, it’s worth remembering there is still a lot of Windows XP out there. The latest Net Applications data showed XP’s market share at 60.03%, which was down from 60.89% in the month before.
No updated word today from Microsoft on Windows 7 Service Pack (SP) 1. Last we heard, it will be out before mid-2011. Should be about time for another beta refresh of it, I’d think. And also no word (new or otherwise) on Windows 8, Windows v.Next or any other version of Windows which may be coming to PCs and slates by 2012 or so….