More WinXP PCs than Vista in 2007, stats show

[redbeacon]

XP on 50% more PCs than Vista in 2007

 

http://img127.imageshack.us/img127/1645/vistastartmenueq7.jpg

 

Various sources

 

Microsoft's now six-year-old Windows XP came with many more computers in 2007 than its Vista replacement, according to Microsoft's own statistics at its CES keynote. Though outgoing company chief executive Bill Gates touted that Vista had crossed the 100 million-unit sales mark before the end of 2007, InformationWeek notes a Gartner assessment which claims that about 255.7 million PCs will have been sold over the course of the year, leaving Vista with just 39 percent of the new PC market despite going on sale early in the year, at the end of January. With most remaining systems shipping using a variant of Windows, the statistic points to almost 60 percent of all PCs shipping with the older XP variant -- or a more than 50 percent larger number than its newer counterpart, according to Electronista calculations.

The statistic also represents further evidence of a continued slowdown for the new Microsoft OS. The company's claim represents an average of 8.3 million copies per month sold in 2007, which is lower than the 9.3 million per month recorded during the summer quarter. However, 60 million of these sales have been attributed to the common early spike in demand in the first few months and 28 million in the summer. This leaves 12 million copies sold in the last three months of the year, or just 4 million per month despite the potential for increased holiday sales, Electronista finds.

 

The growth rate has actually slowed versus XP, which sold 89 million copies in its first year on store shelves despite an overall PC market half as large as in 2007.

 

Much of the downturn in results is widely credited to a hesitance by business and home buyers to either buy a Vista upgrade copy or replace their PC with Vista as the only choice. Notably, PC makers such as Dell were pressured by demand as early as April to bring back Windows XP as an option for their computers by customers that are still worried about compatibility or performance.

 

As for businesses, Dell and several other larger system builders continue to offer XP as an option for some of their computer models made for their cautious business market.

[redbeacon]

What will happen to Windows XP?

 

Will Microsoft stop support for Windows XP anytime soon? How about whether they will have another Service Pack?

 

Microsoft already stopped support for Windows XP without a service pack (RTM)on September 30, 2004 and also, stopped support for XP computers equipped with Service Pack 1 and 1a on October 10, 2006.

 

Mainstream support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 will end on April 14, 2009, four years after its general availability.[41] As per Microsoft's posted timetable, the company will stop licensing Windows XP to OEMs and terminate retail sales of the operating system June 30, 2008. This will be 17 months after the release of Windows Vista.

 

Windows XP Service Pack 3

 

With the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) just around the corner in the first part of 2008 it will undoubtedly draw some renewed attention to XP.

 

As described by TheElderGeek, an informative website providing Windows XP tips and how-tos, and a massive forum for amateurs and professionals, "There is nothing spectacular about SP3. You aren't going to load it up and be instantly blown away by new features or performance. That's not what a service pack is intended to accomplish."

 

Moreover, the author added that Microsoft has stated this in the whitepaper PDF file at Windows XP Service Pack 3 Overview that proves his affirmation:

 

Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system, in addition to a small number of new functionalities that will not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system.

 

News pieced from various sources

[jB]

they better not phase out XP because I still don't like VISTA

[WildCard]

They will.

That's the whole concern.

Support will stop after April.

 

But most companies are still sticking to XP.

I'm still recommending to my company that we stick with XP.

The hardware requirements of Vista are just too ridiculous...

[kyoichi]

A company will not just change to vista due to compatibility with hardware and software. Time taken for migration is also another problem not to mention money. One more thing is user themselves may have problem using vista and what about those user already have problem with XP? All can affect the daily output of the company which is more like will affect the profit of the company.

[redbeacon]

I'm still recommending to my company that we stick with XP.

The hardware requirements of Vista are just too ridiculous...

 

A company will not just change to vista due to compatibility with hardware and software. Time taken for migration is also another problem not to mention money. One more thing is user themselves may have problem using vista and what about those user already have problem with XP? All can affect the daily output of the company which is more like will affect the profit of the company.

 

And not to mention, based on the software developers' point of view, this means either hunting down chunks of incompatible code to change, or worse -- rewriting the whole software. Lots of man hours and $$ wasted for this too, not to mention, migration = company lag.

 

Moreover, how their XP compatible software integrates into their company infrastructure may not allow such a radical change, when it has been flawlessly working all along.

 

(That's why I wanna be a software developer...so cool, can test your code against many software, not to mention, in so many environments)

[Refugee]

i've been on vista for a year with 3gb ram...

 

now it eats up 1gb ram on boot... just ran a winxp installation on VMWare and ram used is like 100mb....

 

i like the way vista is made, being very user friendly... but its just eating too much ram.

 

i wonder if i can get used to winxp again.... laptop format is next weekend... i'm undecided.

[ah786786]

but as for me,i ran better on vista compared to XP....and for usage of 2 much ram,there are progs that help u with that,like cacheman...and bootvis by microsoft...

[WildCard]

A company will not just change to vista due to compatibility with hardware and software. Time taken for migration is also another problem not to mention money. One more thing is user themselves may have problem using vista and what about those user already have problem with XP? All can affect the daily output of the company which is more like will affect the profit of the company.

 

Yupz.

Asking my users to switch to Office 2007 is already a headache.

Even though its exactly the same as 2003, the change in interface design is causing some issues.

Luckily my company's a new startup with less than 20 staff.

I decided to start early and force everyone to use Office 2007 now. Better so tat all new staff from here on will have to learn to use Office 2007 when they join and will learn from there, not having me to go around and show each one where individual features are,

 

And not to mention, based on the software developers' point of view, this means either hunting down chunks of incompatible code to change, or worse -- rewriting the whole software. Lots of man hours and $$ wasted for this too, not to mention, migration = company lag.

 

Moreover, how their XP compatible software integrates into their company infrastructure may not allow such a radical change, when it has been flawlessly working all along.

 

(That's why I wanna be a software developer...so cool, can test your code against many software, not to mention, in so many environments)

 

You sure you want to be a developer?

Make sure you ask for minimum 5-digit pay-check, stock up a lot caffeine-loaded drinks and watch the sun as much as you can. Coz it may be the last time you will ever see it everytime a project comes along.

[wait4me]

wildcard

yr office alredy 2007 le ah ??

power ...

 

mine onli 2003 leh

[redbeacon]

Where I was, our office didn't want to convert to Office 2007 just as yet.

 

One reason was that Public Folders functionality was dropped on Outlook 2007 and this meant that the Infrastructure Team -- and i presume -- had to find another way (or software) to compensate for the lack of PF for collaboration.

 

Other than that, Office 2007 looks cleaner, more convenient, albeit the intimidating "Ribbon" toolbar that users have to use common sense to find the tool that they want to use.

[WildCard]

wildcard

yr office alredy 2007 le ah ??

power ...

 

mine onli 2003 leh

 

It was inevitable la.

MS Office 2003 OEM has stopped selling.

Also, our office purchased MVL for 2007. So might as well start.

 

Where I was, our office didn't want to convert to Office 2007 just as yet.

 

One reason was that Public Folders functionality was dropped on Outlook 2007 and this meant that the Infrastructure Team -- and i presume -- had to find another way (or software) to compensate for the lack of PF for collaboration.

 

Other than that, Office 2007 looks cleaner, more convenient, albeit the intimidating "Ribbon" toolbar that users have to use common sense to find the tool that they want to use.

 

Well, we don't user PFs here coz the coy is not THAT large. Maybe for NTU-sized organization, it is needed.

But there is an easier answer: Sharepoint.

Have set up and am using Windows Sharepoint Service 3.0 here, which is free and integrates into the standard Windows CAL system.

I'm not a MS fan but this is one of their products (bonus being free) which actually helps.

Integrates easily into Office 2003 and 2007.

Now just need to slowly get users to switch over the Sharepoint instead of the network shared folders everyone is used to.