Why XP Only has Five Months Shelf-Time Left
Microsoft is said that it will allow retail outlets and OEMs to sell PCs with Windows XP as many customers continue to carry on upgrading to Microsoft’s latest Operating System, Windows Vista.
Microsoft will be extending the time it will allow retail outlets and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to sell PCs with Windows XP as customers continue to upgrade to Windows Vista.
Microsoft had previously planned to stop selling XP through OEMs and retailers on January 31st 2008, while custom system builders such as Dell have until January 31st 2009 to pre-install XP on machines. But because sales of Vista PCs have not been as strong as expected, OEMs and retailers have bombarded Microsoft with requests to extend XP’s availability. Both “OEMs and retailers will now have until June 30th 2008 to sell PCs with Vista pre-installed on machines”, said Microsoft. The company also said that Retailers will also be able to sell XP out of the box until that time at their own discretion.
In fact, some PC makers are selling Vista-ready systems that also have an XP Recovery Disc just in case their customers aren’t happy with the new OS – which is how the majority of many new purchasers feel I would imagine!
Why?
“While we’ve been pleased with the positive response we’ve seen and heard from customers using Windows Vista, there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista,” Microsoft said in a press statement.
Microsoft are also going to be extending the life of Windows XP Starter Edition, which is the version of XP for emerging markets. The software will be available until June 30th 2010, so users in those markets can take advantage of low-cost PCs with limited hardware specifications that Vista might not be compatible with. Vista requires hardware upgrades that most PCs running XP simply do not have.
As part of Microsoft’s policy since 2002, a new Windows OS would stay on the market about four years after its original availability date. But XP was released on October 25th 2001, more than five years before Vista limped out the door to consumers January 31st 2007, after repeated delays and a major source code overhaul.
Vista Expectations Lowered
Microsoft had high expectations for customer adoption of Vista, and claimed the launch would be one of the most successful in Windows history. Unfortunately for the company, those predictions so far just haven’t worked out for Microsoft. In July however, Microsoft lowered its projections for customer adoption of Vista. The company had said the split between XP and Vista sales in its fiscal year ending June 30th 2008 would be 15% – 85%; now the company is saying the split will be 22% XP as opposed to 78% Vista.
According to some, that may even be optimistic. Stuart Lock, who owns a small-time Computer Repair shop in the heart of East London, UK, said that Microsoft has “Mucked it up with Vista.” He said he’s not surprised Microsoft extended the availability of XP for OEMs. “I figured people have gotten so used to XP and the way it functions, that Vista is simply not ready for the market yet, and Vice Versa”, Lock said.
He added that the extension likely won’t affect his business relations much, since most of his customers come to him because they are already disillusioned by the Media and Major PC manufacturers and thus want a PC pre-loaded with Vista, though he personally said he much prefers XP.
Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), a rollup of updates for the OS that Microsoft has said will be available in the first quarter of 2008, should make Vista a little more market-worthy. In fact, many have said they would wait for the update before moving from XP to Vista.
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Cool, about time Windows Vista gets the camoe mention. Amen to Windows XP.
upgraded to vista recently, jesus christ, hangs all the time, hogs memory, has a security function that prevents program from writing in the program folder, wich makes it hard to find files.. i hate it.. drivers suck… everything with it is just.. not good.
Stay XP! Peace out.
(hey, sorry for any f*ck-ups with the spelling, not my first language)
Well for time the time being I’m DEFINITELY staying XP… nice to hear your views backie!
vista is great. Stable and more compatible than xp. After using it i throw stone at my old puter with xp on it. Besides if you get a gig of memory for $50 on tiger, if you can’t afford that how can you afford a computer? Wish people would just grow up and get over switching to vista. Times change.
Vista Ricks. Yes driver will be a haste in the beginning, but i rate it’s a huge step up from XP. I myself will be a XP fan. but don’t want to get left behind when the world adopts Vista…