Microsoft wants to sell 16 million Windows tablets this holiday season

With the holiday season coming up, Microsoft has set a pretty lofty goal. The Redmond based tech giant says that it wants to sell 16 million tablets during the holiday quarter. If we were to look at sales of Microsoft Surface tablets alone, this would be a tough task. But spread it out among all manufacturers selling tablets powered by Microsoft's mobile OS, and  it is a possibility. During last year's holiday quarter, Apple sold 22.9 million iPads vs.15.5 million the prior year. So this could be be a legitimate challenge for Microsoft.

What might help Microsoft achieve its goal is the cash that the company is spending on promotions. This fiscal year, the company will spend $405 million on promoting its products, which includes $131 million that it will spend on incentives. Since Microsoft's fiscal year started in July, the company should have plenty of that money to spend during the holiday quarter. One of the incentives is a $25 gift certificate to spend on apps, which is something that could bring in some business.

According to a published report on Friday, Microsoft will push a new message during the holiday season, and it is not "buy a Windows tablet or else". Actually, expect to hear that a Windows tablet is "more than an ordinary tablet." Will those nice words help 16 million Windows powered tablets get rung up over the next 7 weeks? Probably not. But what will help will be the launch of the Nokia Lumia 2520 which is powered by Windows RT 8.1 and could launch sometime this month via Verizon and AT&T.

source: Winsupersite via BusinessInsider