By Ina Fried, 20 April 2007 08:43
NEWS
Amid significant customer demand, Dell will return to offering Windows XP as an option on some of its consumer PCs.
Like most computer makers, Dell switched nearly entirely to Windows Vista-based systems following Microsoft's mainstream launch of the operating system in January. However, the company said its customers have been asking for XP as part of its IdeaStorm project, which asks customers to help the company come up with product ideas.
Dell said on its Ideas in Action page: "We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings." Users get to vote on various suggestions, and the notion of bringing back XP got 10,000 "points", making it among the most popular requests but well below top picks such as adding Linux or OpenOffice.org to its PCs.
Windows XP systems became scarce but not impossible to find after Vista arrived. For example, HP said it would continue selling XP on some machines aimed at SMEs, while CompUSA still stocks a couple of business-oriented XP systems in its retail stores. Lenovo has also continued shipping XP on many of its business systems.
Starting immediately, Dell said, it is adding XP Home and Professional as options on four Inspiron laptop models and two Dimension desktops.
Earlier this month, Dell added XP back as an option for small-business customers but at the time it said it would not add it back for home users.
Tom West, director of small-business marketing at Dell, said in a blog posting at the time: "Dell does not have plans to launch Windows XP for home users as the preference, and demand is for the 'latest and greatest' technology, which includes Windows Vista."
Analysts say Dell's move is not a good sign for Vista.
IDC analyst Richard Shim said: "That there is remaining demand from some segment of the consumer market points to the inability of Vista to resonate with consumers."
Current Analysis research director Samir Bhavnani said most of the demand for XP he sees is from small businesses, rather than consumers: "They know that XP works. It's not that they don't want to upgrade to Vista. They just don't want to upgrade to Vista yet."
Microsoft product manager Michael Burk said in a statement: "Dell is responding appropriately to a small minority of customers that had this specific request. But, as they have said before, the vast majority of consumers want the latest and greatest technology, and that includes Windows Vista."
The software maker has said it will stop selling Windows XP to large PC makers by January. Smaller computer sellers, known as system builders, will be able to sell XP machines for an additional year.
In a statement last week, Microsoft said such a move is normal after a new operating system comes out.
It said: "Windows Vista is safer, easier to use, better connected and more entertaining than any operating system we've ever released, and we're encouraged by the positive customer response we've seen to date. It's standard practice to allow OEMs, retailers and system builders to continue offering the previous version of Windows for a certain period of time after a new version is released."
Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ian Savell
XP is still by far the most common OS preinstalled on computers both online and in the shops. This is especially true for laptops, where it is quite hard to find a suitable laptop with Vista. Come on Silicon, there is a bigger story here. Are warehouses full of unsold XP systems, is XP still much cheaper for OEMs than Vista, or is there huge resistance from customers?
2. Guy Reynolds
Like many SMEs we still have to purchase new PC hardware either to replace old or as additional to cover growth, however as yet many of the core products we run have not yet been fully approved by their manufacutrers to run on Vista. Some manufacturers have even advised not to attempt to run current version of their product on Vista.
This gives us three options, either not to invest and potentially hold back the business, invest in equipment running Vista and hope that nothing untoward will happen, or invest in equipment running XP which is proven to work.
Until we know all our software and existing hardware will run with Vista, there is only one option, stick with XP.
3. anonymous
XP is going to continue being popular by PC savvy users until 3rd party hardware vendors provide working Vista drivers for their hardware.
For consumers who do not understand the implications or are new to the market and do not have other hardware yet would naturally choose vista being newer and better (or whatever they are told in the stores)
This has always been the same life cycle with any new MS OS
4. John Foster
Microsoft says "Windows Vista is safer, easier to use, better connected and more entertaining than any operating system we've ever released..."
Safer is obviosuly good but "better connected" suggests there are more options now available to budding hackers. But I don't get the 'entertaining' part. I do not want an entertaining OS. I want an OS that is stable, crash-proof, secure and capable of running the applications that I use.
5. anonymous
The problem with Vista seems to be that it's just too different from XP and so breaks too much. From a Home user perspective, someone starting from scratch should have few problems as long as they buy everything from scratch - printer, network, software - and keep up with the latest system patches. However, anyone upgrading an existing Home network is likely to have endless problems as everyone struggles to release Vista compatible software and drivers.
I've had a nighmare time installing a new Vista PC at home and the thought of similar problems at work is frightening!
6. anonymous
LOTS of existing stuff doesn't work with Vista, more than didn't work with XP when it came out IMHO.
It also makes a fast new machine seem mediocre in terms of speed.
Unless your PC and _everything_ you use with it are brand new, I'd stick with XP.
7. Chris Anderson
Is ervice pack 1 for Vista out yet? I Don't think so, Therefore only a fool would choose Vista! I have bought several machines from dell since vista was released, the first page has allways offered the choice of XP or Vista.
8. anonymous
A big change since XP was released is the number of homes/families with multiple PCs. Most of these have OEM versions of XP for which there is no cheap upgrade to Vista (if the hardware would cope). Given this, if people want a common platform in the home, they are going to by new PCs with XP rather than pay high prices for full licences to go on old machines.
9. Chris Down
In certain sectors XP is not an option. Almost all CAD software developed pre Jan 2007 won't install under Vista.
AutoCAD 2008, released in March 2007 is the only version of AutoCAD that will run under Vista.
Even though most users have subscriptions to get upgrades to 2008 they tend to run one or two versions behind. The idea of a new AutoCAD version and a new O/S together is more than most users would contemplate. CAD tends to be mission critical.
I did notice when I tried to spec a Workstation type machine on the Dell site a few weeks ago that Vista was not an O/S option. It would seem that Dell have realised that the CAD market is not the only one where Vista is not compatible with users' applications.