Huge Windows 95 sales fail to meet expectations .  Martin Wolk  SEATTLE 1996-08-22  A year after its massively publicized introduction , Microsoft Corp. 's Windows 95 computer operating system has fallen short of the most optimistic expectations for the software giant and the industry .  Even though more than 40 million copies of Windows 95 have been sold , making it the fastest-selling new software ever , it would have been impossible for any product to live up to the unprecedented hype of the Aug. 24 , 1995 launch , when stores around the world opened at midnight to greet long lines of customers .  The Redmond , Wash.-based company spent tens of millions of dollars promoting the product with stunts that included buying the entire print run of the [START_ENT] Times of London [END_ENT] and lighting New York 's Empire State building in a Windows color scheme .  But the product , delivered eight months late , has fallen short of its sales potential in part because Microsoft delivered a mixed message to business customers , analysts said .  " It did n't do as well as it could have , " said Rob Enderle , an analyst with Giga Information Group .  Scores of software and hardware companies that had hoped for a big boost in sales were disappointed when only a brief spike materialized .  " People who were expecting major coat-tails were somewhat disappointed , " said Scott Winkler , an analyst with Gartner Group .  " It 's not as though it has n't had an impact , " he said . "  It just has n't had the huge earth-shattering impact some people were looking for . "  Symantec Corp. , which had been among the most bullish of software companies at the time of the Windows 95 launch , ended up posting disappointing financial results when retail sales of the operating system fell short of its projections .  Touchstone Software Corp. had to pay $ 1.3 million in cash and stock to settle a shareholders lawsuit brought after the company 's sales failed to meet expectations tied to the Windows 95 launch .  Many software developers apparently saw their crucial holiday season sales suffer last year because store shelves were jammed with blue-and-white boxes of Windows 95 , resulting in a shortage of space for seasonal products , said Ann Stephens , president of PC Data Inc .  To be sure , sales of Windows 95 and the accompanying Office 95 upgrade drove Microsoft sales up 46 percent last year to a record $ 8.67 billion and cemented the company 's status as the industry 's dominant company .  Microsoft executives say they are thrilled with the sales figures , and industry analysts estimate that by sometime next year , the installed base of Windows 95 will surpass that of the older version of Windows , now used on about 100 million computers worldwide .  But Enderle said the figure could have been even higher if Microsoft had done a better job of handling the huge demand for technical support from customers who were frustrated trying to install the system .  He and other analysts said corporate America adopted a go-slow approach because Microsoft already was promoting the new version of its high-end Windows NT operating system , expected to be available in stores in the next several weeks .  " Microsoft sent a lot of signals that NT was going to be the answer , " Winkler said . "  Many people began to believe that Windows 95 was being downplayed . "  But now that Windows NT 4.0 has been launched , Winkler and others believe only a relatively small proportion of corporate users will elect to pay the added software and hardware costs needed to use it instead of Windows 95 .  " Windows 95 is going to do great , " he said . "  The mistake people made was in thinking it was going to be a fast , sweeping change rather than a slow , building change . "
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