CHART OF THE DAY: Surprise! Microsoft Has Sold 3 Times As Many Windows 7 Licenses As All Apple Products Combined
Apple has been turning in hot quarter after hot quarter, blowing away expectations. Apple's mobile operating system, iOS, the platform underlying iPhones, iPods, and iPads, seems to be taking over the world.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's run of blowout quarters has made 'iOS is taking over' the default narrative — a story built on years of momentum, from analysts calling Mac share growth 'nothing short of spectacular' back in early 2008 through the survey showing Mac OS hitting a record 7.3% share with iPhone up 33%. Today's chart pushes back on that framing with raw volume: Microsoft has moved three times as many Windows 7 licenses as Apple has sold products of every kind combined.
The gap is less a verdict than a reminder of how differently the two companies monetize. Microsoft sells licenses wholesale into the PC OEM channel — the same channel its 'I'm a PC' campaign was built to defend — while Apple counts every iPhone, iPod, and iPad as a single high-margin sale. Comparing the two numbers measures distribution reach, not business quality.
First-order effects
- Microsoft's OEM licensing machine remains the volume leader by a wide margin: every PC shipped with Windows 7 preinstalled adds a license, giving Microsoft an installed-base advantage Apple cannot match in unit count.
- Apple's growth story survives the comparison intact — three consecutive expectation-beating quarters mean its trajectory matters more than its absolute unit tally against Windows.
Second-order effects
- PC OEMs stay anchored to Microsoft's licensing terms because Windows 7 volume keeps the platform the default purchase for commercial and consumer PCs, limiting any incentive to push alternative desktop OSes.
- The headline number pressures Apple on perception rather than economics — Apple can absorb losing the volume argument as long as investors keep pricing its per-device margins above Microsoft's per-license fees.
Third-order effects
- If mobile devices keep compounding faster than PC shipments, license-count comparisons like this one become progressively less meaningful as a measure of platform strength, forcing analysts toward installed active devices and ecosystem engagement instead.
- An industry scored on licenses rewards whoever owns the OEM channel; an industry scored on devices rewards whoever owns the customer relationship — and the tension between those two scorecards will define the Microsoft-Apple rivalry's next phase.
The trend: Platform competition is shifting from counting OS licenses sold through OEM channels to counting active devices and ecosystem engagement, where Apple's integrated hardware-software sales compound against Microsoft's licensing volume.