Vista sales reach 60 million mark

Microsoft is now saying that it has sold over 60 million licenses for its latest operating system, Windows Vista. Reuters writes that the figure was announced at Microsoft's annual meeting with financial analysts, and is the most recent data available from the company since Vista hit the 40 million mark in May.

The announcement appears to confirm a permanent slowdown in Vista sales, which ran to 20 million in the first month, but were halved for both March and April. This rate remained relatively constant from the beginning of May until the end of June.

During the analysts' meeting, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer indicated that a number of major organizations have renewed multi-year contracts with the company. Further speaking to the future, Ballmer said he believed growth must come not only from expanding the core software business, but by succeeding in newer ventures such as online services and audio hardware.