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RedmondMag: Windows XP Just Too Good, Harming Vista

RedmondMag: Windows XP Just Too Good, Harming Vista

by , 4:40 PM EDT, July 23rd, 2007

Vista could mark a turning point for Microsoft. It could be the Microsoft's first OS that suffers on the sales side because its predecessor works so well, according to RedmondMag.

Keith Ward noted that even though Microsoft has touted Vista's success, "lately, evidence has begun to mount that Vista isn't selling like hotcakes, and it's due in part to satisfaction with XP."

RedmondMag.com is the "independent voice of the Microsoft community."

"The latest, and most striking, indication of XP's continued strength, and Vista's softness, was given by Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell during a conference call last Friday to discuss the company's Q4 earnings. While trumpeting Microsoft's first-ever year of gross income topping the $50 billion mark, Liddell also said that the company changed its forecast of revenue from its desktop OSes in Fiscal Year 2008, revising Vista's revenue down from 85 percent to 78 percent, and XP's revenue up from 15 percent to 22 percent," Mr. Ward observed.

Market research backs up the observation. "The release of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system at the end of January has, so far, failed to stimulate the market in the way many hoped," George Shiffler, research director for Gartner's Client Platforms Markets Group, stated in a recent press release. "Our market data suggest Vista has had very limited impact on PC demand or replacement activity. We don't see Vista having a significant effect on these going forward unless Microsoft becomes much more aggressive in its marketing efforts."

Yet another punctuation of the effect has been Dell's decision to re-offer XP after first deleting it as an option after Vista debuted. "We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings," Dell said.

"With each [new] version of Windows, it gets harder and harder to find features and improvements that will drive upgrades," said analyst Matt Rosoff of independent research company Directions on Microsoft.

The bottom line is that Windows XP has been out for five years. It works well enough for most people. All the drivers are there. Vista is better but not compelling above the hood. The customer momentum has remained hard to overcome, and Microsoft has had to revise their Vista projections downward.

Apple has been successful in the past with this kind of OS migration, and about two thirds of Apple's customers are currently using Tiger on their Macs according to Steve Jobs at WWDC 2007. Even so, it's an issue for any OS vendor, and perhaps Apple elected to learn from Vista's debut so they don't make the same mistakes.

  

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Guest
Subject: Let's Not Forget to Factor in the PRICE of Vista

Partly true, partly spin. The fact is XP is especially good enough given the price of Vista. The myriad of version of Vista doesn't help, either.

Close Name:jbruni Posts: 105 Joined: 14 Jul 2006
Subject: Irony

There is a certain irony here or at least poetic justice. Microsoft's customers are not the kind to go after quality. Instead, they settle for "good enough". So now, since XP is good enough, they won't budge.

It will be interesting to see how quickly Leopard is adopted in comparison.

Close Name:macmikey Posts: 22 Joined: 18 Feb 2005
Subject: Good enough because Vista is XP w/a facelift

There is nothing new in Vista. Anyone coming to it thinking there is something original, something not in XP (besides a higher price tag and a new display format) is thinking of some of the features Longhorn was supposed to provide. Problem is, Microsoft doesn't know how to do anything new. All they know how to do successfully is rip someone else off. When they do have a good, original idea, they demonstrate their incompetence at implementing it.

So Dell and HP force it on you because they know you have no other real option... if you've sworn yourself to settling for their gear.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: XP is a familiar stink

Despite keeping Windows XP up to date, having current anti-virus software and a firewall, my home XP box kept getting infected and having problems. I bought a Macbook Pro last November to start my own small business because I needed something reliable. My teenage daughter's XP just failed again (4th time in past year and a half) so I tossed it and bought a 20" iMac. Wish I could have waited for the refresh but it was buy now or hang myself. (I said I'd die before ever fixing an XP virus problem and reinstalling from scratch again.) I'm a newbie and a member of the so-called Mac "cult" now... simply because its a damn good machine and operating system. XP stinks and there was no way I'd ever trust my money, my productivity or my business to Redmond again. And Apple is just fun as all hell too! First time in years I have fun using a computer.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Leopard is not Vista

A few reasons that new Mac OS X versions are adopted so quickly is that (1) Apple's upgrades tend to become more stable and usable (2) So far at least, almost all of the stuff you had on your prior version runs on the new version and (3) Apple usually manages to include useful and interesting additons, e.g., the upcoming Time Machine, improved iChat functionality, Spaces, better Mail and iCal integration etc.

Apple gracely managed a fundamental change in OS moving from 9 to X, then another moving from PowerPC to Intel CPUs. I work in an environment in which PowerPC and Intel machines, both servers and clients, all coexist happily with one another. I just can't see Mr. Softy pulling that off!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: vista

and Vista is NOT leopard either :p

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Lesser of 2 Lemons?

I used to own a 58 Chevy. When the 59's came out, I said no thank-you, I LIKE my 58. Riiiiiiiiight.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Truth

XP is better than Vista. Vista offers little additional and is a resource hog. However I contend that XP also sucks and offers little or nothing more than Windows 2000 did. It was a far better OS then XP. (it's not that W2K was so good, rather that XP was barely ok and Vista is just horrid) XP only sold well because it was marketed as the successor to W95/98/ME to the unwashed masses (2K was not)

Which tells us that Msoft has been backsliding for more then a decade.

But is this really news?

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Keep in mind that Vista is not all bad. It is good for Apple!

Close Name:Guest
Subject: XP works well? You could have fooled me.

If they consider XP as working well then VIsta really is a $400 piece of 5 year old trash!
To costly and to many confusing versions most of them useless to anyone except the Ultimate version. Again $400 piece of 5 year old trash with no real new features just old features hidden and more confusing to find and use along with an over zealous security mode that gets in the users way more than it protects them to the point of being absolutely annoying.

Buy a Mac and use OSX. Ultimate version since there is only one version comes with it along with all the software you'll need to get started with music, video's, pictures, text, mail, file sharing, and much more. NO viruses, spyware period.

Close Name:fartheststar Posts: 222 Joined: 04 Jan 2004
Subject: Re: Leopard is not Vista

Isn't it funny how in 5 years (maybe a few more but I'm not exactly sure, Apple went from OS9 on Power PC's to OS X on Intel.

Microsoft went from XP to Vista, and no one wants it.

That's just powerful. Apple changed multiple OS's (X way different than 9) and also changed architectures.

Guest said: "Apple gracely managed a fundamental change in OS moving from 9 to X, then another moving from PowerPC to Intel CPUs. I work in an environment in which PowerPC and Intel machines, both servers and clients, all coexist happily with one another. I just can't see Mr. Softy pulling that off!"

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Quote
Guest wrote:
If they consider XP as working well then VIsta really is a $400 piece of 5 year old trash!
To costly and to many confusing versions most of them useless to anyone except the Ultimate version. Again $400 piece of 5 year old trash with no real new features just old features hidden and more confusing to find and use along with an over zealous security mode that gets in the users way more than it protects them to the point of being absolutely annoying.

Buy a Mac and use OSX. Ultimate version since there is only one version comes with it along with all the software you'll need to get started with music, video's, pictures, text, mail, file sharing, and much more. NO viruses, spyware period.


Sigh, could you be more biased and inaccurate?

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Vista Just Too Good, Harming Mac OS X

"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: Vista Just Too Good, Harming Mac OS X

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!


Umm. Wow. What did you expect regarding Vista? It is the only OS you can easily buy from Microsoft right now (yes, you can get XP from some vendors, but most won't go through the trouble unless they have specific need for XP). As people buy new PCs, they get Vista. So of course their share of online users will increase. At the expense of every other OS MS has released. That's called upgrading. If it doesn't, Microsoft really has something to worry about. Also, how did they measure the metrics? Does the article you quoted say? Do you even know? Since you didn't link to anything, nobody can check.

Of course, you are just trolling the forums, so you probably don't care. But Mac users have nothing to cry about. Especially those who own stock in the company. Meanwhile, MS stock has had growth almost equivalent to putting your money under a mattress. Vista has had very little impact on their stock.

Close Name:daemon Posts: 344 Joined: 17 May 2007
Subject: Re: Vista Just Too Good, Harming Mac OS X

Quote
Intruder wrote:
Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!


Umm. Wow. What did you expect regarding Vista? It is the only OS you can easily buy from Microsoft right now (yes, you can get XP from some vendors, but most won't go through the trouble unless they have specific need for XP). As people buy new PCs, they get Vista. So of course their share of online users will increase. At the expense of every other OS MS has released. That's called upgrading. If it doesn't, Microsoft really has something to worry about. Also, how did they measure the metrics? Does the article you quoted say? Do you even know? Since you didn't link to anything, nobody can check.

Of course, you are just trolling the forums, so you probably don't care. But Mac users have nothing to cry about. Especially those who own stock in the company. Meanwhile, MS stock has had growth almost equivalent to putting your money under a mattress. Vista has had very little impact on their stock.


Eh. Vista is a solution in search of a problem. It supplies support for 196 GB of RAM when most enthusiasts only suggest that you have 2 GB of RAM to get the most out of your system. It offers DX10 when all the games availble to play only utilize DX9. It offers HDMI support when most people still are using VGA and DVI.

Vista won't see a huge move until software starts coming out that can actually advantage of 80 GB of RAM.

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject: Re: Vista Just Too Good, Harming Mac OS X

Quote
daemon wrote:
Eh. Vista is a solution in search of a problem. It supplies support for 196 GB of RAM when most enthusiasts only suggest that you have 2 GB of RAM to get the most out of your system. It offers DX10 when all the games availble to play only utilize DX9. It offers HDMI support when most people still are using VGA and DVI.

Vista won't see a huge move until software starts coming out that can actually advantage of 80 GB of RAM.


No disagreement. DRM may also be an issue for some too.

For anybody to expect that Vista won't have a big uptake is delusional. Just because Leopard is coming out doesn't mean that Apple will suddenly take a huge (tens of percent) chunk of market share. That would happen slowly over time. Lots of time.

Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject: Re: Vista Just Too Good, Harming Mac OS X

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!


Of course, it has increased. It started from ZERO. There was no way to go but up. At the same time, it's likely that the number of users of XP, Windows 2000, etc., has gone DOWN. In contrast, the number of users of OS X has constantly increased.

Close Name:David Nelson -   TMO Staff Posts: 5407 Joined: 11 Jun 2001
Subject: Re: Vista Just Too Good, Harming Mac OS X

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!


I shouldn't feed the troll, but this is a classic case of lies, damn lies and statistics. It's like saying "More Ford Mustangs are on the road every month while rival Toyota has shown little growth." You can't make meaningful comparisons between the growth of a single product and the growth of an entire company.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Quote
Intruder wrote:
Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!


Umm. Wow. What did you expect regarding Vista? It is the only OS you can easily buy from Microsoft right now (yes, you can get XP from some vendors, but most won't go through the trouble unless they have specific need for XP). As people buy new PCs, they get Vista. So of course their share of online users will increase. At the expense of every other OS MS has released. That's called upgrading. If it doesn't, Microsoft really has something to worry about. Also, how did they measure the metrics? Does the article you quoted say? Do you even know? Since you didn't link to anything, nobody can check.

Of course, you are just trolling the forums, so you probably don't care. But Mac users have nothing to cry about. Especially those who own stock in the company. Meanwhile, MS stock has had growth almost equivalent to putting your money under a mattress. Vista has had very little impact on their stock.


Actually, buying a new computer with a different OS than your current one is not called upgrading. Upgrading is where you buy the new OS and install it in the same computer.

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
Actually, buying a new computer with a different OS than your current one is not called upgrading. Upgrading is where you buy the new OS and install it in the same computer.


It is effectively the same for Microsoft (not so for the hardware manufacturers). Depending on what happens to the machine, a license of XP (or whatever) drops out and a license for Vista starts. Vista gains and XP loses.

But yes, you are semantically correct. However, most consumers would say "I upgraded to a new computer".

Close Name:daemon Posts: 344 Joined: 17 May 2007
Subject:

Quote
Intruder wrote:

But yes, you are semantically correct. However, most consumers would say "I upgraded to a new computer".


That's incorrect terminology that would leave one with the impression that you bought an entire new computer rather than just buying the new version of the operating system and installing it on the old computer. I think most consumers would express such a situation as "I upgraded my operating system."

Close Name:Intruder -   TMO Mac Specialist Posts: 3149 Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Subject:

I'm referring to buying a new computer. Many consumers refer to that as "upgrading".

And none of this actually relates to the original article. It seems, according to the article, that Vista is having difficulty overcoming XP in user's minds.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: why buy XP and Vista vs. OS X market share

1. Why buy XP over Vista? Well I just bought an iMac. I needed to run windows games with bootcamp like Guildwars. So, I got XP. Why?
- it's cheeper
- it uses less ram
- it is more compatible with programs
- and it's faster
a no brainer really.

2. The Anonymous troll wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

This is a silly comparison. A true comparison is;
A. Market share for all windows and OS X machines.
OS X market share is rising slightly and so overall I'd guess that windows market share has gone down slightly.

B. The number users of a NEW OS;
- The number of users of OS X 10.4 Tiger have been going up. It started from zero and has been rising.
- The number of users of Vista have been going up. It started from zero and has been rising.
* A true comparison is between the market share of OS X 10.4 Tiger and Vista. This would compare the number of users of a NEW OS.

imho at least, BB

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Vista has disappointed more than a few people.

Microsoft basically has one new OS- Vista Ultimate. The other "versions" are simply hamstrung and degraded versions of that product. Essentially, Microsoft is deliberately selling defective software. But, because of their market positioning and financial strength they can force their will upon the market. I predict that very soon, Microsoft will start backing away from XP and even the laughable "support" we now get will gradually evaporate. I'm sure they will force Dell to stop selling XP. MS stated that Vista would create a great many new jobs. Why? Because someone has to try to make it work. Apple's Leopard will create no new jobs because it simply will work. I switched to Mac earlier this year and there is no reason to look back. I'll get Leopard "Ultimate" for $129.

Close Name:LaurieF -   TMO Forum Mod Posts: 3547 Joined: 15 Jun 2001
Subject:

OK, it's all relative.

Quote
Press Release wrote:
Microsoft had sold 60 million Windows Vista licences as of the end of June, including 20 million copies sold since mid-May, the company said.
Microsoft may be not doing as well as it could, but that's still quite a bit of revenue.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: nob face

get a life

Close Name:gslusher Posts: 2088 Joined: 13 Nov 2002
Subject: Re: nob face

Quote
Anonymous wrote:
get a life


Now, there's an intelligent remark.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Quote
David Nelson wrote:
Quote
Anonymous wrote:
"Windows Vista's share of online users has increased every month this year, while rival Mac OS X -- to which Vista has often been compared -- has shown little, if any, growth, a metrics company reports."

Read and cry, idiot Apple fanboys, ROTFLMAO!


I shouldn't feed the troll, but this is a classic case of lies, damn lies and statistics. It's like saying "More Ford Mustangs are on the road every month while rival Toyota has shown little growth." You can't make meaningful comparisons between the growth of a single product and the growth of an entire company.


Mac OS X is not a company. Apple is. Duh.

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