Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Predicts Huge Win 8 Numbers

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been under the radar for the most part in recent weeks, as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been taking up the headlines with their launch of the iPhone 5 while Windows loyalists patiently (or impatiently) wait for the launch of Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 operating systems.

However, as the hype of the iPhone begins to dwindle toward the end of this month and that coincides with the Windows 8 launch, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) officials are actually taking a less-than-conservative approach to expectations of penetration in the market by the new operating system – which seems to go against the normal grain for Redmond. A top executive with the company said recently that the Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) would have more than 100,000 apps ready for download in the next 90 days (after having just a few thousand at last count in recent days), and it said that Windows 8 would be a huge success for the company.

If this comes to pass, investors in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), like billionaire fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, would be ecstatic.

How huge is “huge success”? Vice President Keith Lorizio boasted that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) may have 400 million units of Windows 8 sold by July 1 of next year – which projects out to more than 525 million units in 12 months. By comparison, PC sales have been in the range of 370 million over the past few years. What brings about such dramatic numbers? Lorizio said, “Windows 8 is going to be a really special experience. Prior to now … we never had the operating system engaged in [a consumer-oriented] ecosystem. Now, with Windows 8, it’s not just pivoting around productivity, which every Windows release has been known for; we’re now going to pivot off the consumer.”

He continued, “There are three things that [will] make Windows 8 a guaranteed success: It’s the massive marketplace [of PC users]. It’s about providing the same experiences across all devices in the Microsoft family—not just across the PC, but across mobile, across Xbox, and across the phone. And third, we’re going to have beautiful, relevant, and personal ads. So all of the ads are going to be integrated; they’re not going to be disruptive to the user experience, but beautiful, relevant, and useful.”