Sales of Windows 98 likely to surpass Windows 95

Despite the legal furor surrounding its release--or perhaps, as some peoplebelieve, because of it--Windows 98 is already getting greater-than-expectedadvanced orders. Because of this, market research firms are now predictingthat Windows 98 will outsell Windows 95 in the same time-period after itslaunch.

"We're forecasting there will be more Windows 98 sold in the first six months than there was in the first six months [after] the launch of Windows95," said Channel Marketing president David Goldstein. "When we look at thepenetration of [PCs in] small businesses and home consumers, it's going tosurprise a lot of people."

Though Kim Brown of Dataquest disagrees that Windows 98 will surpass themark set by Windows 95, she says that new computers sold with Windows 98will likely surpass 30 million units by this September. And like Windows 95before, it's likely that system bundles will account for the majority ofsales