Vista awareness doing little for sales
updated 11:55 am EDT, Thu April 5, 2007
Vista Awareness
The heavy publicity surrounding Windows Vista has had little effect on computer buyers, according to a recent Harris survey. While an ad blitz nearly doubled recognition of the new Microsoft OS from 47 to 87 percent between December and March, the number of existing users who intended to upgrade had actually dropped over the four-month period, only 12 percent had said they would upgrade to the OS within the next year.
"Vista promised better performance,
reliability, security, and a revolutionary user interface - but it appears
consumers looking to upgrade are not ready to buy into the promise," said Harris VP Milton Ellis.
The new OS also had a relatively smaller impact on those shopping for new computers, Harris found. A full 60 percent of buyers were unaffected by Vista when choosing their next PC; the remainder was split equally between delaying for and speeding up their PC sales for Vista, the researchers said.
Harris attributed much of the failure to a hesitation on the part of buyers, many of whom are looking to Microsoft for bug fixes and compatibility help before they upgrade to Vista.
Overall share for Vista by the end of March was limited to a modest 3 percent of the market, being eclipsed not only by the predominant Windows XP (79 percent) but also Mac OS X and Windows 98, each of which claimed 5 percent in the study.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2005
So much for Microsofts cl
So much for Microsofts claim of double the sales of XP. But with so many defects and incompatabilites it's no surprise. And now that computer makers are also trying to claim there PC's are compatible with Vista and to find out only Vista basic home versions people are afraid to buy. Not surpised there either. To many versions and limitations. Microsofts way of sales by confusion to get more money. Looks like its backfiring on them now.