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Microsoft Sees Stronger XP Sales in FY08

Posted by Zonk on from the everyone-is-a-winner dept.

Rude Awakening wrote with a PC World article, saying that XP sales will actually be higher next year than they were in 2007. Despite Vista's release, Microsoft admitted this week that it expects the previous version of its operating system to make up a larger percentage of its OS sales in 2008. "According to Liddell, Microsoft will generate the same revenue, more or less, under the new Vista vs. XP numbers, although there might be some slight differences because Vista sales have tended to involve more of the higher-priced versions, dubbed premium by the company, than has XP. The financial forecast didn't spell out that directly, however. The only clue was a US$120 million difference in what Microsoft pegged as the 'undelivered elements' it assigned to unearned income for the coming year."

13 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. A couple reasons for this by LehiNephi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I can think of a couple reasons why XP sales would be higher, both related to the release of Vista. First, you have people who don't want to switch (rather than "upgrade" or "downgrade"--I'm trying not to troll) to Vista, and so they're buying XP while they still can. Secondly, you have people buying computers with Vista, deciding they don't like it, and buying a license of XP instead. And on top of that, many of the Tier 1 OEMs still offer XP as an option. Sometimes it's the default option. And sometimes it's the only option.

    I'll admit that this is pure speculation, but if true, I find it interesting that the release of the new, "better than ever" version of a product is driving sales of the old (but still serviceable) version. It kinda reminds me of when Linksys came out with their WRT54G v.5.

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    1. Re:A couple reasons for this by sapgau · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Agreed, the other big reason is that corporate users haven't switched to Vista. I still haven't heard of any of our customers planning on Vista yet. If they take months before releasing a security update or service pack for XP, I can't see how they could be preparing for Vista now.

      At the very minimum corporate users will wait until their lease expires on their Dells and then will see if they demand XP to be included in their new machines!!!

    2. Re:A couple reasons for this by aborchers · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly. The corporate world is always miles behind. My company is just still malingering on 2K on a lot of boxes, just now getting to XP. Big companies are not known for leaping forward into new and unproven technologies, especially when most of the improvement is just user eye-candy.

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    3. Re:A couple reasons for this by NeoTron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I, for one, run Linux practically exclusively on my machines. However, my sister-in-law, for example, wanted to purchase a new laptop. Now, the particular model she wanted came with Vista, but I advised her to get the shop to install XP instead, for numerous reasons (the incompatibility with a lot of older programs, drivers, etc. (I'm too lazy to list ALL the reasons right now)), so she has followed my advice and is a happy person. The point of this post? Vista, in my opinion anyway, is rather like Windows ME of the past - a bit of an abortion from Microsoft - they have quite obviously released Vista FAR too early - it's an unfinished product, rushed out of the factory, because it perceived its competitor's products (Linux-based, OSX-based for example) being released with certain innovations which it wanted to claim for itself as its own innovations, and now because of that is paying the price of that rush. People percieve Vista to be what it is - a rushed out Operating System with many bugs, failed claims, and as a - to be extremely kind - beta quality product at the very most.

    4. Re:A couple reasons for this by FractalZone · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Big companies are not known for leaping forward into new and unproven technologies, especially when most of the improvement is just user eye-candy.

      Exactly. XP was a disaster when it was first released, but like most Microsoft products, it benefitted from being beaten up by users for several years. I know of savvy computer users who still run Win2K, not because of corporate lethargy, but because it is arguably faster and more stable than XP, and has a smaller footprint, even after all the multitudinous Service Packs and other patches have been applied. Honestly, I don't do anything that depends on XP that I couldn't do with Win2K, and think downgrading to Vista would be a major step in the wrong direction. Microsoft OSes need to "age" at least three or four years before they can be trusted in the real world.

      I still say that Windows Vista is the best advertisement around for Ubuntu Linux.

      --
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    5. Re:A couple reasons for this by Petaris · · Score: 4, Informative

      Secondly, you have people buying computers with Vista, deciding they don't like it, and buying a license of XP instead.

      If you have a MS lic for an OS or Office suite you can install either of the two versions before it, you can contact MS for the nessesary lic code. Our new machines will come with Vista Business lics with WinXP Pro installed, and we could have even asked for Win2k installed. I am not disagreeing with you at all, just pointing out a perhaps not so well known MS lic feature. That way you can always install Vista if/when you decide you are ready for it.


      --
      ~Petaris "The world is open. Are you?"
  2. The Cynic in me... by NeoTron · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Ironic Cynic in me says Microsoft released Vista /EXACTLY/ to increase it's sales of XP :P

  3. Vista is a failure by realdodgeman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Vista is a failure. It always has been, and it still is. Microsoft try to tell you otherwise, but that doesn't make it any less of a failure.

    I hope and think that people are starting to realize that newer is not always better, and at the same time realizing that Microsoft doesn't always tell the truth. I also hope and think that this will speed up the adoption of Linux for the desktop, even if it is not quite ready for everybody yet.

    (Excuse my English, I am Norwegian.)

  4. Dear Microsoft... by skinfitz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dear Microsoft - you lost me as a customer about 15 seconds into the 'Monkey Boy' video, the day of which I immediately went out and bought a Mac. (serious). My exact thought process was 'I seriously see no future in a company that has a f**king a**hole as a CEO.'

    Now how to 'fix' your Vista 'issue' - cut the multiple versions bullsh*t and make 'Ultimate' the only version, and sell it for $120.

    Be amazed as profits rocket.

    That is all.

    Dumbasses.

    ps on second thoughts ignore all this and carry on as normal as it's really helping Linux and OSX gain ground.

  5. Vista Sucks... by CFBMoo1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm sorry, some people will flat out disagree but it sucks. Reasons I think it sucks and I'm going out and getting a copy of XP before they totally yank it is as follows:

    * 0x80073712 error in doing updates. I've ran in to this problem and did the registry fix to remove StoreDirty, cleaned out the update download directory, and threw up a voodoo doll on the machine to get Windows Updates to install. From what I've read on their forums and other sites I got as results from my Googling, repair install or reinstall is about the only fix.

    * Video drivers, I'm still waiting on a 7900gtx nvidia driver that works properly. I'm not at all happy with Vista's performance and driver compatabilities. I spent over $300 on that card FOR VISTA. Why the hell ain't it working properly on my games which aren't even DX10 games. This is more of an Nvidia problem but it just adds another reason for me to not like Vista.

    * Renaming everything. Jesus christ I can't find Add/Remove Programs because it was changed to something else. Consistancy for god sake people! I seriously feel like I did after I first installed a copy of Linux, which runs great, but I had this lost feeling and no clue where anything was.

    XP may have had more holes in it but it just WORKED. I can't say the same for Vista at all.

    --
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  6. Re:Oy by Deviate_X · · Score: 4, Informative

    No is isn't people are just too stupid to read properly, the article is about microsoft changing their predictions about XP sales for next year from 15% up to 22% and vista from 85% down to 78%.

    Its amazing how people can get facts so wrong when its practically written in your face

  7. We linux users should help promote Vista because.. by 3seas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...vista sucking will result in promotion for Linux.

    Only don't promote Vista as a Linux user, Instead promote it like you work for MS.

    Lets all face it, new and improved functionality must be weighed against new and improved problems and user constraints to have to again learn all about and deal with.

    Who really wants to do that?

    I was resistant to XP when it came out and I have never purchased a copy but use it at work and find it installed on systems people toss and I grab up or systems others give me. Do I like XP better than windows 98? Yes, some, as it has improvements that I could do without but are nicer than windows 98. But it also has irritations I'd rather not have that windows 98 doesn't have.

    And that just a comparison of windows to windows. I use Linux 90%, or better, of the time at home. I have used Knoppix, still have it installed on one system but use ubuntu on my main system. (having drive trays is useful as I can swap out for windows98 as I have purchased several third party software packages and installed them on windows 98).

    Of the windows XP boxes, I use one briefly for bellsouth/AT&T and linksys router control, because they only support windows (idiots). But I can and do run the live cd of linux dynebolic on them.

    I have numerious systems including several PPC macs pre-osx and one imac post osx (interesting machine).
    I have systems that have MS DOS - pre-windows and later versions and onece had to deal with MS ME trash.
    Somewhere I have a MFM drive dual bootable (probably doesn't spin anymore) with old Minix on it.

    I still have an Amiga 1000 and an Amiga 4000/toaster system.

    The point is: I've tried a lot of different system, more than mentioned.

    But what do I really want of an OS?

    Of course I want a wide range of quality software I'm interested in, to run on it, thats a given.

    The Amiga is the closest, and I'd probably like BeOS too.

    But the problem here is that they are no longer reasonably supported and off shoots like AROS and BeOS's open source versions are yet to reach production level.

    DragonFly BSD seems promising as does the Hurd and Minix 3, but they too lack in current state.

    Overall I am greatly disappointed with the computer industry in regards to Operating Systems.

    All things weighed, GNU/Linux currently gets the most points, But I don't consider it 100% Free Software, as there really are a lot of built in constraints.

    100% FreeSoftware will only happen when software is easy enough to create that most anyone can do it, just as today most anyone can use a calculator.

    Windows is very much the opposite of free, and the most pathetic example of MS dumbing down the users (a crime against consumers) is changing the names of applications and functionality and in general taking away functionality that should be considered fundamental. Philosophy being - make the users think they are stupid while giving teh professionals more to re-learn and charge for.

    While GNU/Linux applies has it constraints one what the users can do for themselves.

    So promote Vista ..... Remember you are an IT professional and must support your income. When the users see past windows you still can have a go at them via Linux.

    And remember, when this barbaric OS mentality is finally overcome, it won't matter to you cause you long be dead.

  8. Vista's Content Protection by Ilmarin77 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    * Video drivers, I'm still waiting on a 7900gtx nvidia driver that works properly. I'm not at all happy with Vista's performance and driver compatabilities. I spent over $300 on that card FOR VISTA. Why the hell ain't it working properly on my games which aren't even DX10 games. This is more of an Nvidia problem but it just adds another reason for me to not like Vista.

    Here is the explanation, why it takes so long: Vista's Content Protection: In short, apparently it is very difficult to make a proper video driver for Vista.