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Week in review: Policing the Net
February 9, 2007 -
Week in review: Visions of Vista? Buyer beware
February 2, 2007 -
Week in review: Vista on the horizon
January 26, 2007
Sales of boxed copies of Windows Vista at retail stores significantly trailed those of Windows XP in each product's first week on shelves. Market research data showed that the number of copies of Vista purchased was nearly 59 percent lower than the number for its predecessor. Revenue was also down, but less dramatically, with the dollar value of first-week Vista sales off 32 percent from that seen with XP.
Although boxed-copy sales were weaker, PC sales during the launch week were up 67 percent over computer sales in the same week a year earlier.
An overwhelming majority of readers on CNET News.com's TalkBack forum seemed dubious about the value of the upgrade.
"I think people were just stocking up on a stable system before Microsoft pulls it from the market," one reader wrote. "That also includes people buying new computers with Vista but actually (wanting) to use them."
Sales may be hurt further by an IT professional who claims to have discovered a way of upgrading to a full version of Vista from scratch, while paying only the cost of an upgrade for an earlier version of Windows.
As part of the Vista launch, Microsoft is offering Windows users a range of upgrades, allowing them to move to one of six versions of Vista without paying the full cost. These upgrades are supposed to work only on a PC that contains an existing copy of Windows. The key to the IT professional's method is that the upgrade package contains a complete version of Vista, which the package can be encouraged to install on a machine without checking for an existing authorized copy of Windows.
Times are tough for Vista in the virtual world as well. Although Microsoft recently threw a splashy launch party for Windows Vista in Second Life, those running the operating system may have had trouble enjoying the festivities.
According to a recent post on Second Life's official blog, some people running Vista can't reliably connect to the virtual world, where millions of people hang out as avatars or as 3D versions of themselves. Second Life engineers are working to hammer out the technical problems. Ensuring that Vista users can access Second Life could prove important to Linden Lab, which makes money selling virtual clothing, real estate and other goods.
Indeed, not everyone even in the tech industry is in a hurry to upgrade to the new operating system. John Thompson, CEO of security company Symantec, went so far as to warn against viewing Windows Vista as a solution to security woes. In an interview with CNET News.com, Thompson said he has not updated to Vista and doesn't see a need to do so.
People still need the efficacy that comes with the products that Symantec and others in the security industry build, and so computer users should not confuse the marketing rhetoric with what Vista is, Thompson said. "It's a hopefully much better product than XP or any of its predecessors, but it's not a security solution."
In a wide-ranging interview, Thompson highlighted what he and his company see as the shortcomings of Microsoft's new offering, and he also discussed some of the challenges the security company faces from competition and product development.
The wireless frontier
The 3GSM World Congress, one of the world's largest trade shows for mobile services and devices, showcased the cutting edge of the wireless industry for three days this week in Barcelona, Spain.
In a bold move to accelerate the adoption of location services for mobile devices, the world's two largest handset makers, Nokia and Motorola, each introduced their own navigation services, a move that could pit them against mobile operators.
In addition to adding new hardware products that will be able to receive signals from satellites to fix a subscriber's exact location, the companies have also introduced their own navigation services, which they plan to sell directly to consumers.
While the business models on these services vary slightly, it's clear that these companies are no longer content to wait for mobile operators to begin offering their own location services.
See more CNET content tagged:
Second Life, Microsoft Windows Vista, Week in review, IT professional, virtual worlds
now. No room for Vista anyway.
I am disgusted with Microsoft. Sold my stock.
Have converted my home machines to OPENSUSE and love it. By the way, it's FREE. The Openoffice Suite is not as slick as MS Office, but for the price difference, I can live with it. There's more than enough in the OPENSUSE package for me to surf, chat, work my POD, create music and video, and for the kids to crank out their homework. And did I mention...it's FREE?
Looking to convert my business to Linux in the near term. Tired of getting raked over the coals by Microsoft. Have invested well over $10,000 for their OS's over the years, have exactly ZERO to show for it.
It's over baby, Vista can bite me.
All of this crap was said when XP came out...how it was not much better than 2000.....yet now XP is perfect you need nothing else.
Vista is a solid upgrade with lots to offer, especially a corporation.
Seriously, if Windows were as bad as it it's made out, why would the overwhelming majority still use it?
I think both Macs & PCs are good- for what I do, Windows works better (database & number crunching), & I told my sister to get a Mac, because it fit her for what she likes to do.
But really, there's more to life than promoting an operating system.
bias of CNet agianst the Mac Platform. We happen to also be a
little sensitive to people that swear Windows is better but have
never spent more then a couple hours using a Mac.
Are you employed by M$
* I have a growing career based in all OSes, and work with a
huge percentage of them, including Windows, Linux, FreeBSD,
and Solaris. From that experience, I know which ones work
best... Windows' one and only advantage happens to be in the
availability of certain given apps. Otherwise it has naught but
disadvantages.
* There is also the fact that the vast, vast majority (statistically
as close to 99% as one can get) of OS-based problems/crashes/
viruses/etc for users at home happen to involve Windows. Kinda
sad, isn't it?
* Nearly every virus and worm works on... Windows.
Given all of that, I'm merely here as a public service.
and managing data from a Database is just plain uninformed and
unpracticed.
Or you're just another MS hatchet man.
CEO Steve Ballmer tells analysts that some forecasts for Vista sales are too aggressive, prompting investors to boot out of the shares
http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/feb2007/pi20070216_409268.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_investing
Vista - reality check, only x % of the installed base will upgrade.
My father-in-law, Emachine Celeron-XP, 1 yr old sys, will not upgrade.
My 13-year old son E-machine AMD 3200-XP, 2 yr old sys, probable upgrade.
My wife, Sony laptop 2+ yr old-XP, probably no.
My system, Gateway AMD 3700, 1 yr old sys, XP->Vista planned.
commercials. That word usually has a negative hurtful context
and applies to feelings of superiority between people.
Apple is not saying that Mac users are superior people. Nor are
they Apple is a superior company. They are simply pointing out
that they think they have a superior (for many people) PC
product. And they're conveying that in a light humorous way
that non-geeks can relate to..
I would say Apple's commercials are intended to be direct and
provocative, but not condescending.
poeple don't know about.
Cisco acquired the iPhone trademark as a fluke, and it's clear
they've never really had any intention of using it. Instead they've
justing been sitting on it ... over five years now and counting.
Cisco's so-called "iPhone" product was nothing more than some
iPhone stickers on the shrink wrap of a box containing a
completely non-iPhone product.
Cisco knows that Apple is very interested in that trademark (and
I'm sure Apple has offered to buy it), but instead Cisco is trying
to use it as leverage to manipulate Apple.
That's not what Trademark law was intended for, and I think
Apple is sick of begin jerked around by Cisco. So they
deliberately stepped on the iPhone trademark as a way to call
Cisco's bluff. It's time for Cisco to put up or shut up. That is,
either make a real iPhone or give up the trademark.
building to fail a bit (thus us HAVE to go to MS to "update") It was built to take over the home, media wise; for that it bows to the media-dealing-companies' policies, without caring much for the consumers' rights. That's why it costs so much, etc. but MS forgot the basic; US ,and they will pay for it.
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=522208&SiteID=17&PageID=1
I'll stick with XP Professional SP2 and Ubuntu on my system for now.
To answer this article's title question, no I don't see Vista in my future. I'll stick with XP + Ubuntu til (1) Microsoft issues XP SP3; (2) Google releases its Linux-based OS.
Don't think so. Hasn't happened yet and won't happen any time soon.
Seriously, you Apple and Linux fans need to get your heads out of your ***** and realize that everyone who wanted to get Linux or Mac OS already did. Microsoft's 95% market share won't change anytime soon.
Everybody who's bashing Vista's bad sales obviously hasn't read the many articles that say that new computer sales increased by like two thirds (67%) on the week of Vista's release. Check this out:
http://www.techspot.com/news/24308-pc-sales-increase-on-week-of-vista-release.html
Vista clearly plans to stay, and stay very comfortably on the couch with it's legs propped up. After all, MS did put like 6 years of development time into this project!
I finally got through to Moduslink corporate office where I was put through to a voice mail. I left a message, hung up and called the corporte office again. I asked to speak to someone else and was told that was not possible. I asked for the name of the person I was talking to and her supervisor and mentioned that I might write about this situation. Suddenly she managed to get ahold of a real life person. Michael Powderly took my information but said it would take 4 to 8 weeks to send Vista. I told him that was not good enough because I made this purchase in November and should not haave to wait while others go into the store and purchase the system off the shelf. He said he would get back to me by Tuesday morning. It is now Saturday February 17. I have had one email telling me to send in a confirmation page from the website and proof a purchase. I never got far enough to get a confirmation number.
VISTA may be great product but the totally inept way the sales are being handled makes me wonder if I ever want to risk it on my laptop.
Is this runaround a result of poor planning or is it total disinterest in the consumer once they have their money? Either way it makes me wish I had switched to the IMAC. Right now I feel discounted and have lost all confidence in Microsoft products.
- Windows Vista
- by DellCentrino February 26, 2007 12:09 AM PST
- Likewise! Just when you thought that all the software/driver issue was being resolved. Now it's back to square one with all the headaches.
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- Ignorance
- by Fil0403 February 28, 2007 11:23 AM PST
- Typical! I am running Microsoft Windows Vista Business in my 2004 Toshiba Satellite A60-122 laptop for more than 1 month now and the only "issues" I've had is ZoneAlarm not working in Vista and my Western Digital MyBook Essential 250 GB external hard drive running slower than in XP. Now we're back to all the ignorance and stupid comments regarding a new Windows release.
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