HP CFO: Windows 7 Won’t Be A Major Refresh Driver

While there are many who are making statements one way or the other on this topic, people tend to sit up and take notice when the CFO of the number one manufacturer of PCs makes the statement.

from All Things D

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) CFO Cathie Lesjak says the company does not expect the debut of Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 7 to trigger a major PC refresh cycle.

“We think it looks like a good product, one that folks will really like, but we don’t think it is different enough to drive a refresh cycle,” she said in an interview this afternoon with Tech Trader Daily following the company’s Q3 earnings report. “It’s kind of the way we thought about Vista. Over time, folks will move. Others are calling for more of a hockey-stick effect, but we’re not counting on it at this point.”

Meanwhile, Lesjak says the company believes business conditions overall are stabilizing. She said U.S. and China demand stabilized last quarter, and that the trend spread into the Asia Pacific region in the July quarter.  [more of the article]

What this says, for those that can interpret, is that Windows 7 will not be something that will be a major mover for that company, and the tsunami of combined upgrades that Microsoft expects, will have to come from the small fry, instead of the big fish. If H-P is stating this, you can bet that the folks at Dell, Acer, and Lenovo know it, and are simply keeping quiet.

No doubt the enthusiasts will drive a certain amount of adoption, but - and I think this is very important to note - Microsoft may have caused part of this. That is, by making Windows 7 ‘hardware-friendly’, many people, outside the usual PC-with-bundled-OS refresh, have already upgraded hardware, or, having been ahead of the curve for awhile with an upgrade, for, or in anticipation of, Vista, might only buy a new video card (that has Windows 7 drivers) along with a copy of the new OS.

Oh, well, Mr. Ballmer, there’s always 2014, or Bing!.

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Black holes are where God divided by zero. Steven Wright