Sales of Office 2007 were substantially better than those of Office 2003 during the first week of its launch, according to a study comparing retail figures for both products.
In the first week of its launch in late January, Office 2007 unit sales exceeded first-week sales of Office 2003 by 108.3 percent, according to a preliminary report released Monday by the NPD Group, a consumer and retail trade researcher.
While the average selling price for Office 2007 declined 1.1 percent to $206.93, the dollar volume jumped by 106.3 percent compared with Office 2003, the report noted.
"Unit shipments grew faster than dollars," said Chris Swenson, NPD director of software industry analysis. He noted that sales of the cheaper Home and Student editions of Office contributed to the dip in average selling price.
NPD, however, said its preliminary figures are conservative, given that one participating retailer in its survey did not supply its information in time to be considered for the report.
Office 2007 commercial unit sales, meanwhile, climbed approximately 61.3 percent during its first month of sales, compared with Office 2003 in its first month, the report noted. The new version of Office was released to business customers in November.
Dollar volume rose 97.8 percent in the first month of Office 2007 commercial sales to value-added resellers, compared with the first month of Office 2003, the report noted. And the average selling price rose 22.6 percent over Office 2003 to $301.33 in its first month of sales.
"The Office 2007 launch was extremely successful, no matter how you look at it--whether it's the weekly or monthly sales," Swenson said.
He added that the launch performance of Office 2007 and Vista came as a surprise to him.
"With almost zero advertising and marketing until the January 30, 2007, retail launch, I expected U.S. commercial license sales of Office 2007, as with Windows Vista, to be significantly below the sales of the previous version in its first full month on the market," Swenson said. "They weren't. Sales of Office 2007 were significantly better."
