Windows 98 sales exceed expectations

Sales of Microsoft's Windows 98 operating system, which was released inlate June, are currently outselling Windows 95 at the same point in itssales history. This news came from Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, who was addressing IT executives in Europe, though no figures were made available.Microsoft typically announces OS sales figures at specific milestones, suchas a certain number sold.

"Windows 98, so far, is selling better than Windows 95," said Gates, who had previously said that he had expected Windows 98 to sell fewer copiesthan Windows 95. "The product is doing very well."

Gates said that Windows 98/NT, Office, and BackOffice were responsible forover 90% of the company's income.

"We're good at building high volume software products," he said, though headded that Microsoft needed to make things easier for consumers. "Our top priority is our 'simplicity' initiative. We have to make a big advance to bring in simpler approaches. There are still too many commands, too many ways of storing information.