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Microsoft Boasts 96% Netbook Penetration
An anonymous reader writes "Citing figures from market research firm NPD, Microsoft says Windows' share of the US netbook market has ballooned from less than 10% in the first half of 2008 to 96% as of February. 'The growth of Windows on netbook PCs over the last year has been phenomenal,' wrote Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a post Friday. Information Week author Paul McDougall notes Microsoft's 8% decline in Windows sales is due to netbooks sporting Linux. How does Redmond make an 80% gain in netbook market share without the sales numbers reflecting that gain?"
"...Microsoft says Windows' share of the US netbook market has ballooned from less than 10% in the first half of 2008 to 96% as of February..."
To know why, we need to look at the alternative:
Linux: This offer more often than not, suffers from the following issues:
1: Poor and often inferior hardware specs as compared to systems loaded with Windows
2: Microsoft became smart and did that fast! They were about to retire Windows XP but decided to let it live.
3: Software on Linux systems still sucks big time, though folks at KDE appear to be doing a better job than those at GNOME.
4: Folks around Linux still cannot understand that in the software world, choice while good, breeds confusion. On this very point Bill Gates stated it bluntly while referring to UNIX. He said..."With so many different (Unix) versions, said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., 'There's always been Tower of Babel sort of bickering inside Unix, but this is the most extreme form ever. . . . This means at least several years of confusion.'"
Who gained out of this confusion? Microsoft.
How is it possible? Because what MS (and many companies) are calling a "netbook" are *NOT* netbooks. Netbooks were supposed to be:
1) Small, light
2) Inexpensive
3) Lower specs/speed/ram/resolution
4) Solid state storage
and in all original incarnations
5) Linux based
So, the answer to the questions is: just change the definition of a "netbook" to the same specs as a regular entry-level notebook, ressurect XP, give XP away for nearly free, and then marvel at the market penetration. Sorry, I am not impressed.
Even $100 Linux netbook would change nothing, people would still be buying $500 Windows Netbooks.
At this very moment Aspire One is 250 euros (Linux) v.s. 300 (Windows) and we know that the Windows version outsells by a factor over 20-to-1.
People demand Windows, they are willing to pay for it. I am certain even Microsoft is extremely surprised for that fact.
There are just too many horror stories of "tuning" the Linux.
Are you at 5th grade reading comprehension?
With new booting software and Linux, your computer will now turn on faster than your cell phone.
Is that good enough for you?
Money is the root of all evil?
I dunno about the whole USA, but I've seen people that take up a sizable portion of it...
Fortunately for Microsoft, normal people with jobs can afford to pay for a better operating system.
I had heard of an HP product based on Linux and Java getting canned because the HP marketing department said they'd lose money on the entire product line if the new Linux product shipped because Microsoft would cut off the payments for putting Windows on the systems.
Dude, an HP product using Java?!
Have you ever used any HP software? Or Java GUI software? Or, hell, most Linux GUI software?
It was probably canned because it was an unusable, bloated piece of shit. You don't need conspiracy theories to explain that one.
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