14 DAY TRIAL // Windows XP is no longer a supported operating system, which means that it doesn't receive updates and security patches, but if you're asking those involved in the Chinese PC industry, this is a very good thing that could really help the PC industry and boost sales.
The same thing happened in many other countries across the world, but a new report claims that the Chinese market could benefit significantly from increased PC shipments, as more consumers are looking to migrate from Windows XP to newer OS versions.
The China Post is reporting that Taiwanese parts makers have already experienced a revenue growth in the first months of this year, and the same trend is very likely to continue this year.
At the same time, Yuanta Investment Consulting is even more optimistic, saying that the same increasing trend is expected to continue in the first half of 2015, as the millions of users still running Windows XP will still look into their options to upgrade computers.
Analyst firm Gartner also said in April that the retirement of Windows XP was indeed one of the factors behind the decline slowdown experienced by the PC market, projecting that more users are very likely to purchase new computers in the coming months, as the transition to newer software continues.
“The end of XP support by Microsoft on April 8 has played a role in the easing decline of PC shipments,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
“All regions indicated a positive effect since the end of XP support stimulated the PC refresh of XP systems. Professional desktops, in particular, showed strength in the quarter. Among key countries, Japan was greatly affected by the end of XP support, registering a 35 percent year-over-year increase in PC shipments. The growth was also boosted by sales tax change. We expect the impact of XP migration worldwide to continue throughout 2014.”
According to statistics provided by market researcher Net Applications, Windows XP is still installed on nearly 26 percent of desktop computers worldwide, which could indeed be a sign that the migration process could take many more months than expected.
Windows XP, however, will no longer receive security updates and patches, so in case someone finds an unpatched vulnerability that Microsoft doesn't want to fix, the millions of computers still running this OS version could easily become hackable overnight, despite third-party security apps running on the target machines.