Windows XP Will Still Be Available After 1-31-09 Deadline

No matter which side of the fence you sit on when it comes to Vista, Microsoft is still confirming that some are still resistant to make the switch from Windows XP to Windows Vista. With this in mind, system builders will be able to order Windows XP beyond the January 31, 2009 cutoff date. According to the article by ChannelWeb, the extension is until May 30, 2009 and distribution of Windows XP will continue.

According to the article it states:

It’s yet another sign of the market’s resistance to Windows Vista, and of the growing realization within the channel that many customers have decided to simply skip Vista and wait for the arrival of Windows 7. Microsoft says that’s slated for late 2009 or early 2010, but some reports have suggested it could come as early as mid-2009.Distributors say the best part of the new arrangement is that they won’t have to take title to the reserved XP licenses until they’re sold to an end user, which helps them avoid having to sit on inventory for several months, which is a major concern in a low-margin business.

“This is a good solution to support the customers that are standardized still on XP,” said Michael Schwab, co-president of D&H Distributing, Harrisburg, Pa. “In this case, people contemplated buying in larger quantities [of XP licenses] and holding on to them. But that would have caused a bubble [from] people buying five months of supply in January.”

In addition to helping distributors, Microsoft’s move will help system builders who’ve been nervously watching the Jan. 31 XP deadline creep up.

So it seems that Microsoft is still aware of the fact that their operating system Vista is still not the popular system it had hoped it would be.

Comments welcome.

Source