Intel: PC sales weak as many businesses stick with Windows XP

.zdnet. ^ | March 14, 2015 | Sean Portnoy

[dennisw]

Intel's recent results suggest a slowdown in firms leaving the ancient OS behind and upgrading to new systems. Why won't they update?

Most interesting detail that emerged from Intel's lackluster first quarter financial results had nothing to do with mobile, the company's white whale. Instead, it concerned something so old that it almost seems laughable in the same week that the very 21st-century Apple Watch dominated headlines. Per ZDNet's own Larry Dignan:

In a statement, Intel said it cut its first quarter outlook because of "weaker than expected demand for business desktop PCs and lower than expected inventory levels across the PC supply chain."

Intel cited for that weaker demand: a slowdown in companies upgrading from Windows XP systems. What's particularly interesting about this is that the move away from the ancient OS helped drive some of Intel's better results in 2014. Read this

What that suggests is a potentially intractable problem for both Intel and Microsoft: businesses that still manage to operate fine, thank you very much, with an operating system that's nearly 15 years old. It's the desktop equivalent of the guy who still uses a flip phone and doesn't care if you have an app that can identify a song on the radio in three seconds or can stream the Super Bowl live on your smartphone.

But it's even worse, actually, because that inertia isn't one guy: It's firms with potentially dozens or hundred of employees that have their productivity disrupted while new systems are installed and training is implemented. Then there's the issue of the need for an updated OS. What does Windows 7 or 8 (or 10) do that compels these stragglersto upgrade?

Microsoft's decision to emphasize its new Start screen over the old desktop when it launched Windows 8 did it no favors,

[dayglored]

> you could be ahead to get a (modest) modern computer. In which case the Mac Mini would of course become an option to consider.

Yep. That's what I'm FReeping on at this very moment. :)

[Zathras]

I avoided the whole problem and bought an macbook pro Haswell.
25 years at Intel taught me one thing, MS only cares about MS.