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XP's End Will Do More For PC Sales Than Win 8, Says HP Exec
dcblogs writes "Hewlett-Packard executives say that the coming demise of Windows XP next year may do what Windows 8 could not, and that's boost PC sales significantly. 'We think this will bring a big opportunity for HP,' said Enrique Lore, senior vice president and general manager of HP's business PCs. Lore was asked, in a later interview, whether the demand for XP replacement systems could help sales more than Windows 8. His response was unequivocal: 'Yes, significantly more, especially on the commercial side,' he said. Lore said 40% to 50% of business users remain on XP systems."
..with XP look-alikes. Yeah, OK, I can dream, can't I?
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
For the business users still running XP, I don't see them flocking to buy new Windows 8 hardware. They are still on XP because either the software they run won't run on anything else, or they are small businesses that don't have an IT budget. As long as the hardware and software works, they aren't going to go out and buy new systems.
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Hippie Logger Jock
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"Pulling the rug out from under 40-50% of our clients should really shake things up and boost sales"
This signature is false.
XP is that thing a lot of productivity software and hardware drivers still work on.
There is Windows 7, but shh shh is Legend.
Tales tell of other Microsoft operating systems that basically restrict your computer to phone level functionality, but it's a bitch to hold a tower with one hand while using a 22" touch screen in the other.
Just because XP reaches its official "end of life" doesn't mean that people will throw out their computer and go buy a new one. For most people- and businesses too - as long as existing units still get the job done there is no compelling reason to buy a new computer. The fact that Win 8 is crap is also a factor.
Win7 is the new XP.
The better question is how many people did not buy a new PC precisely because Windows 8?
Given the XP holdouts clearly don't like Microsoft's current offerings, and Mac is growing faster in percentage terms, and Linux appears to be finally getting somewhere - i don't think these XP holdouts will be migrating to another Windows box any time soon.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
to Windows 7 this year.
Windows 8 was just too much of a learning curve for them even if it were the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Windows 7 is similar enough to XP that I can sit them down at it and not have to reteach them everything. I can even make it look
like XP If I really need to. I cant do that with 8 unless I buy add-ons.
Also Windows 7 pro includes an XP virtual machine...so why bother with 8?
Windows 7 is barely 3 years old its not like its going anywhere anytime soon.
Businesses continue to use XP for a variety of reasons, and in a variety of environments. In some cases, they will be willing to upgrade their systems. I will suggest that does not hold true in most cases.
These businesses have invested a lot into their existing systems: hardware, software, and training. They are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of what they have, which reduces the burden of supporting them. Their systems are also in production, fulfilling roles within their operations.
Depending upon the state of their existing systems: replacing XP would involve reinvesting in hardware, software, and training. They will be unable to make effective use of the strengths of their new systems, and will also fall prey to the weaknesses of them. It will take a considerable amount of time to document those changes. Changes also involve pulling systems out of production, meaning that they are unable to fulfill their roles in their operations. All of this represents a liability.
I'm predicting that a most of those businesses will continue to use XP. They will mostly depend upon their strengths internally in order to maintain them. They will also contract out to third parties when they need to. New policies may pop up when it comes down to maintaining systems that are no longer receiving security updates, but they will justify them by claiming that those policies should be in place either way.
I think that HP would do a lot better by servicing those businesses.
still get the job done without being an unacceptable security risk to their employees, their data, or the rest of their network there is no compelling reason to buy a new computer.
There, fixed that for you.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Must be incredibly popular with chiropractors.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So unless MS relents and lets people get some boxes with Win7
"Pro" versions of Windows 8 come with downgrade rights. Many businesses have been "buying" Windows 8 Pro but installing Windows 7.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
somebody asks me, I would say, go get a Win 7 PC, stay away from Win 8.
I don't know if this is any sort of indication about the popularity of Windows 8, but I got my daughter a new Acer laptop with Windows 8 for a graduation present. She asked my to put Ubuntu on instead. Interestingly, she prefers Mate to the default Unity desktop. Aside: boots in seconds because I put /boot and /usr on the SSD drive. Very nice.
In a band? Use WheresTheGig for free.
ok, so i am a neebie, and may not know as much as others in here, but...what your saying is, that when they discontinue offering support for XP, that everyone will rush out and buy new ? I highly doubt that, maybe the larger companies will, and governmental agencies, but the mom and pop type business, won't. I co-own one, and if it isn't broke, we aren't going to fix it period, even if it is broke, we prob won't fix it either, there is no perceived threat of anything different happening
There is no salvaging Windows 8. Even Classic Shell doesn't fix a lot of Windows 8 problems - it just makes Win8 tolerable for a home user.
I see this more as an opportunity for improvement of heuristic engines in anti-malware programs, and the selling of more security-related licenses.
Or, possibly, big corps finally embracing either Linux or Macs.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Would you use a circa 2001 ver of linux or macos?
I'm assuming you are talking about "PCs" as we normally thing of them, not special-purpose boxes, embedded systems, etc.
The answer is yes, if either
1) I had to, because my applications wouldn't run on the newer versions (think PPC-only binaries that I don't have the source for - okay, that's mid-2000s-era, but still).
or
2) it got the job done without any negative downsides and the cost to upgrade (license fees, new hardware, training, etc.) was too high. Think isolated (no Internet) systems OR the mythical (?) 2001 version of Linux or MacOS that was still vendor-supported and which had a supported security package available.
Heck, if Windows 2000 was still supported and it ran the software I needed to run (modern security software, modern web browsers with modern plug-ins, etc.) I would recommend it over XP to anyone with a sub-512MB computer.
Ditto Windows NT for computers in the 16-128MB range, provided I plugged all the security holes (disable LMHash, etc.) and my users were okay with a user interface that is as alien as Windows 8 is from Windows 2000/xp/7.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
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The looming retirement of Windows XP won't stem the dramatic drop in PC sales this year, but it may help bolster Microsoft's revenue, analysts said today. Although experts expect some business laggards to buy new hardware as they try to replace the 12-year-old XP before it's retired in April 2014, the quantities won't be enough to move the PC shipment needle to the positive side of the meter. "Replacements for Windows XP won't be enough to offset the declines on the consumer side," said David Daoud, an analyst with IDC.
Cloud is just a fancy word for dumb terminal
I'm starting to suspect that Windows 8 has doomed the future of Microsoft's near-monopoly on the business desktop. This, combined with the sheer number of services provided via web browser, seems to be a serious threat to Microsoft's future. Where I work, almost all my users could get by with any desktop OS and the web interface they use all day every day would work no differently from what they are used to. Even on Linux, since the services we are using support Firefox independent of the underlying operating system.
With the exception of a handful of users who need Office for interop with vendors and services outside our office, the only thing that keeps me from seriously considering changing systems is the ever-present possibility that we may have to deal with vendors who require their own special software that only runs on Windows.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
With a dumb terminal, the offloaded services were controlled by your employer/educational instutution, not a third party.
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)
Windows 7 is barely 3 years old its not like its going anywhere anytime soon.
False, if "soon" is more than about 2408 days.
Windows 7 death watch
Time left until 00:00:00 January 14, 2020, Redmond Standard Time: 2407 days, 13 hours, 14 minutes, 19 seconds, no 18, no 17, no arrrg, it won't stop going down.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If a big virus hits that exploits a security hole that's unpatched, SOMEONE will offer a patch. I'm 99.999% certain. Why? Because regardless of Microsoft's wishes for XP to just go away, there are still too many people using it every single day (many of whom aren't even computer savvy enough to be able to tell you for sure which version of Windows they're actually using). A serious virus infection would #1, make Microsoft look really bad if they take a stance of "Too bad... we can't fix it.", and #2 would likely put entire networks at risk with the infected files getting copied onto shared drives on servers, uploaded to cloud shared storage locations, and more. It's quite possible such an infection would need an unpatched XP machine to secretly get installed in the first place, but newer OS's would have problems too if the users open attached files sent from the originally infected XP boxes.
If Microsoft stubbornly refused, some 3rd. party computer security firm would seize on the opportunity to get 15 minutes of fame with a free patch they'd circulate.
Whatever you call it, people were excited about Windows XP because of what it brought to the consumer desktop, and people actually upgraded to it on purpose. Same for Win2k vs. Windows NT on the corporate side. Which upgrades since have not been dreaded? Windows 7, which is just Windows Vista Unfucked Edition. How about on the server side? I haven't had to go there in a while, thankfully. Regardless, only a few delusional cases clung to Windows 3.1, or Windows 95, but Windows XP is fairly compelling even today with its low resource requirements and unparalleled compatibility.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
From the web statistics, almost all of them.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
You probably have not heard that "XP only" is secret code for "Wine compatible".
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