All in the Numbers

A Microsoft representative was giving out these numbers at DICE, pretty interesting:

PC retail sales numbers for 2005 dropped 14% from year before.
Retail PC software sales accounted for $2.35 billion in revenue.

That sounds bad, but the gotcha word is "retail sales".

$2 Billion was generated in online sales.

So its really increasing. In fact:

Analysts predict that in 2009, PC retail sales will be relatively flat at $2.3 billion, but online revenues will approach $6.86 billion.