Windows 2000 hits 3 million customers; SP1 due in July

Microsoft Corporation on Tuesday announced that sales of Windows 2000 would hit 3 million by the end of the week, exceeding its expectations. The company also announced that over 100 applications are now "Certified for Windows," while more than 266,000 IT professionals have been trained on the Windows 2000 platform to date. What it all adds up to, according to Microsoft, is unprecedented customer and industry support for Windows 2000. And the first Service Pack for Windows 2000, SP1, will ship in July, ushering in a new wave of corporate adoptions.

"Windows 2000 has been extremely well received by the industry in terms of customer sales figures and phenomenal support from leading OEMs," said John Frederiksen, the general manager of the PC Experience Group at Microsoft. "Moreover, we are consistently hearing from mobile users that it is the platform's reliability, ease of use and friendliness that make it so appealing. We're delighted that we are able to bring that degree of value and functionality to customers."

Microsoft cited a number of large-scale roll-outs of Windows 2000, including Barclays Global, Dorsey-Whitney, Homelife, LCM International, Motorola, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court, Robert Half International, Rainier Technology Inc., San Francisco International Airport and Warner Bros. The company says that over 500 Windows 2000-compatible applications are released every month.

As for Service Pack 1, Microsoft says the release is on track for its summer release. As promised, SP1 will be a rigorously-tested collection of updates that addresses key customer concerns. "Microsoft is committed to delivering products, including Service Pack updates, of the highest quality," Frederikson said. "SP1 will be yet another major milestone for customers of Windows 2000. We have seen across-the-board adoption among organizations that have plans to and/or are now deploying Windows 2000, and we expect that during the remainder of this calendar year and in 2001, Windows 2000 growth on the business PC will continue to accelerate.