14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Vista failed to get much love from consumers from the get-go. The Wow fell flat in terms of end-user perception, and the onomatopoeia not only failed to become synonymous with the Vista experience, but did not even accompany the operating system along the way in 2007, being dumped without a second look by Microsoft. Vista always seemed to come short when compared to Windows XP. The Redmond company is laboring to wrap up with the first service pack for Vista, and in this context, it has the chance to turn the latest Windows client around. But at the same time, it is also working on the third and final service pack for Windows XP. And it still remains to be seen whether XP users will choose to upgrade to Vista SP1, or stick with what they know, now with the full flavor of XP SP3.
While marking the one-year anniversary of Vista's worldwide release, Neil Charney, General Manager, Microsoft Windows Client, mentioned independent studies commissioned to IPSos and NPD. 70% of the users that participated in the studies revealed that they considered Vista an evolution over XP. Addressing the remaining 30% is simply good business. At least so it seems for one computer shop from Milford, whose sales pitch is "We remove Vista, We Install XP." (check out the image at the top of this article, courtesy of SeattlePI)
"Personally, I know that the test of anything new for me is: Would I go back to what I was using before? When it comes to Windows Vista, for me it's emphatically no. I watch my kids use the Instant Search technology to find information on the PC or to start up applications like Microsoft Office by simply typing Word into the Start menu-those are experiences that we quickly got used to. It's just much, much easier to work with applications, get to them quickly and visualize the information with folders that display thumbnails of the actual content," Charney added.
Well, even though the General Manager, Microsoft Windows Client, will not go back from Vista to XP, the fact of the matter is that removing Vista and installing XP seems to be good-enough business to demand "consistent" advertising. According to A&D Computer, the shop that featured the service, users did respond to the offer.