14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will soon stop releasing updates and security patches for Windows XP and even though most people see this as very bad news, analysts believe that some companies should be excited with it.
Gartner revealed today in a new research that the demise of Windows XP had actually increased sales of new PCs in the United States, so shipments are expected to grow even more as they get closer to the official April 8, 2014 retirement date.
“Our preliminary results indicate that this reduced market decline was attributed to solid growth in the professional market,” Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner, says. “Three of the major professional PC suppliers, HP, Dell and Lenovo, all registered better than U.S. average growth rate. The end of Windows XP support potentially drove the remaining PC refresh in the U.S. professional market.”
Microsoft wants Windows XP to drop to a 10 percent market share before April next year, but the ancient OS is still powering nearly 37 percent of computers worldwide.