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Dell dumped its Windows Vista-only policy by adding Windows XP again as an option for four models of its Inspiron notebooks and two models of its Dimension desktop PCs despite Microsoft is sabotaging XP to make roads for Vista. Like many computer makers, Dell has stopped offering XP on most of home desktops and laptops soon after Windows Vista launched at the end of January. Corporate customers still had the option of purchasing XP for their systems, since corporations are often very slow and cautious in moving to a new operating system.
It is expected for Dell to continue favoring Vista especially with the recent announcement made by Microsoft that it will stop selling Windows XP series on January 2008, forcing PC makers to stop pre-installing XP on the new PCs.
But, Dell bowed to pressure from customers. “We heard you loud and clear on bringing the Windows XP option back to our Dell consumer PC offerings,” Dell said on its Ideas in Action page, a companion to its IdeaStorm site.
“In this particular case, it was something we could do that was relatively easy. The infrastructure was already there to offer XP on our systems, so why not?” Kent Cook, a spokesman for Dell, told internetnews.com.
“This is really odd,” said Michael Silver, research vice president at Gartner. “On new PCs, consumers usually do want the latest and greatest.”
Michael Burk, a product manager for Microsoft’s Windows Client group, countered that Dell’s move was in response to a “small minority of customers” with a “specific request,” and said in an e-mailed statement, “The vast majority of consumers want the latest and greatest technology, and that includes Windows Vista.”
The reason for people’s detest for Vista is not the behavior pattern that they want status quo and feel comfortable with the OS they have been using for years but more on the system upgrade and backward compatibility issues.
Some consumers aren’t willing to pay more for computers that meet Vista’s considerable memory and processor requirements just to access those features. “People are happy enough with XP, and they don’t want Vista,” wrote one poster on the Internet’s popular Slashdot technology forum.
Beyond system requirements, some computer users are disappointed that a number of their applications don’t run properly on Windows Vista-based systems.
It looks like Microsoft is going to work hard to crack up Vista marketing, but that may be harder than it sounds.
While OEMs like Dell have until January 31, 2008 to pre-install Windows XP on new computers, smaller system builders and end-users will be able to license XP into early 2009.



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