Comments on: Vista laptops not top sellers on Amazon

It's hardly a reflection of the broad market, but 19 of the top 20 best-sellers at the online retailer run Mac OS X Linux, or Windows XP.

[rasmasyean]

If you want to know how Vista is doing, don't look at what a "store" is selling. Look at actual accepted statistics. Here, check this out...

OK here?s some rough calculations:

18.33% of internet users are Vista
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=11

1.46 billion internet users
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Assuming the usage rate is consistent around the world?
1.46 billion * 18.33% = 268 million Vista internet users

The actually user base would be significantly less (i.e. 180 million as per MS sales) than the above number only if for some reason, Vista users surf the internet WAY MORE than all other OS's to skew the percentage up to 18.34%. It?s probably more likely that that some Vista users don?t use the internet much because it?s for work mostly. Hence there is likely more than 268 million Vista users.

Hitslink logs statistics in the ?rich? (and more regulated) nations. Here Vista adoption is probably held back a little by expense. So that could mean that Vista adoption in other ?poorer? (Gov?t don?t give a crap) nations is much greater than 18.33% since you can like buy it at the local fruit shop for like $1, etc.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

Hey, if you include ALL of Asia? 500 million Vista users??? ;)

[gconnery]

Sorry, Ina this isn't an interesting observation.

The interesting observation is that netbooks are selling really well right now. Whether they're just a fad we'll see over time. For a long time Apple Macbooks have been at the top of the Amazon sales list for whatever reason, and now its mostly netbooks.

Yes, Vista is a little too big for netbooks. Even XP is a little too big, which is why various efforts like TinyXP have taken off. We'll see what happens with this over time. Given that a lot more linux laptops are being returned (presumably because people didn't realize what they were ordering, and didn't want something different, or they really couldn't stand linux), its not entirely clear what direction the OS's on netbooks will go.

Will HP stick with Vista in its follow ons to the mini-note? I'd guess not, but we'll see.

Will better flash disk drivers come out for Vista or XP or both, allowing for extended disk life and battery life?

When netbooks move to Poulsbo will the driver support be better in Vista or XP or both?

Will Microsoft release a new OS specifically targetted at netbooks with a lot of features stripped out in order to keep the image smaller and allow a faster boot? Or will this just be a hobbyist thing?

If you have some insight into any of this, that would be a story. This post isn't though.

p.s. I generally like your stuff. Sorry to trash this one.

[dfstone1]

All of Best Buy's top 15 best selling laptops are Vista machines. The first MAC laptop shows up at #39.

[ballmerisanape]

Macs also run vista.. and xp.

[renGek]

What dummy would buy a laptop from amazon when it costs less at just about every other normal computer centric vendor?

If the article was about the last harry potter book then we can say "ahhhhh thats an interesting trend". This article should just conclude there are schmucks who don't know better and actually buying computers at amazon when they can save good $$$ elsewhere.

[rasmasyean]

I suppose this article is indicating that Amazon is the exception to the rule where Vista is usually the best selling laptop installation. If you take it like that then perhaps like renGek says, Amazon shoppers aren't really bargain hunters. Maybe it's like...
"Oh boy, the new Harry Potter...and what's this shinny Mac Book Pro as a suggested buy? Wow, that must be great to carry with other books <Add to Shopping Cart>."

[Dalkorian]

Yeah, but fista is such a success, what if we looked at the data this way .... wah wah wah!

You masochistic fista fanbois make me sick. What makes you think I want to listen to your pathetic whimpering under the whips and chains of winblows? Crawl back to the corner and cry to yourself.

Without walls, who needs winblows and gates?

Break the chains of slavery, take your machine back and install a real OS on it like Linux. Or continue to whimper like a baby about how the world isn't doing things the way you want, but don't expect me to care one iota when the next virus wipes your machine out - AGAIN. Fix it yourself, losers. You asked for it, now deal with it.

[Guru Master]

Looking at the huge number of notebooks available on Amazon is interesting. It is more interesting to see how many have Vista on them.

Burrowing down through the following categories in bold and then reviewing the OS on the items:

<b>Computers & Add-Ons ?</b>

<b>Laptop Computers ?</b>

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) (12)
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (49)
Windows Vista Business (337)
Windows Vista Home Basic (36)
Windows Vista Home Premium (1,179)
Windows Vista Ultimate (101)
Windows XP (188)

<b>4 Stars & Up ?</b>

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) (12)
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (16)
Windows Vista Business (16)
Windows Vista Home Basic (6)
Windows Vista Home Premium (260)
Windows Vista Ultimate (18)
Windows XP (46)

<b>Energy Star ?</b>

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (13)
Windows Vista Home Premium (44)
Windows Vista Ultimate (1)

<b>$500-$999</b>

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) (2)
Windows Vista Home Premium (22)

The point of all of this is that the total number of notebooks with Vista greatly exceeds the number of notebooks with Mac, to the tune of <b><i>~1700 models with Vista to only 61 models with Mac</i></b>. As always, Microsoft's current OS will remain dominant.

[rasmasyean]

You make an excellent point.

There is a relatively small number of models in Macs so that would skew the specific Mac unit purchases up.
Since there are so many models of Windows machines, all the purchases get distributed among those 1700 models so it's harder for a specific Dell or Gateway (or whatever) to make the top 20.

But that still leaves the fact that Amazon has more Mac popularity than the computer retailers (where Mac models aren't even near the top). Perhaps people who shop at "computer/electronics stores" are more savvy about technology, hence they chose Windows Vista....versus mostly "book readers" in Amazon whom many may be "illiterate in computers" (which is a demographic Macs boast about serving).

[shaggydope60]

These "big box store" laptops with Vista on them aren't fast out of the box because they're weighed down with junk software while (most likely) lacking CPU, memory, or disk speed.

You have to make a serious monetary commitment to get a laptop that is any good.