Microsoft has obtained a 617 million dollar contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to install Windows 8 on 1.5 million computers at Pentagon, Bloomberg reports. The contract signed for a three years period, gives the army, the air force and the Agency for Information Defense access to the Windows 8 system and to programs such as Microsoft Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013.
"The Department of Defense majority has decided to collaborate with Microsoft. It is very good for our business," Tim Solms, general manager of Microsoft's Pentagon affairs said.
Seven offers were submitted for the contract tender, but participants' names were not made public.
Computer retail sales endowed with Windows operating system across the U.S. has decreased by 21% over the four weeks since the launch of Windows 8, compared to the same period last year, according to Port Washington.
The decreased was caused mainly by the drop by 24% in sales of notebook computers, Microsoft losing ground to smartphones and tablets produced by Apple and Google.
The Pentagon closes about two thirds of the costs for direct federal contract from the U.S.A. The U.S. government has awarded direct contracts of over 530 billion dollars in the fiscal year ended on September 30, 2011, according to Bloomberg data.