Microsoft counts XP sale for Vista

[newbie2]

HP's revelation, made at the launch of a new range of business notebooks, flies in the face of Microsoft's persistent PR claims that Vista has sold tens of millions of copies — and is selling at a faster rate than XP ever did.

However, HP explained how Microsoft is coming up with these "Vista" sales figures.

"From the 30th of June, we have no longer been able to ship a PC with a XP licence," said Jane Bradburn, Market Development Manager, Commercial Notebooks for HP Australia.

"However, what we have been able to do with Microsoft is ship PCs with a Vista Business licence but with XP pre-loaded. That is still the majority of business computers we are selling today."

So, in other words, Microsoft counts a sale for Vista, even though the computer manufacturer has really sold XP.
http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm
:lolflag::rolleyes:

[rockface]

http://apcmag.com/xp_still_killing_vista_in_sales_volume_hp.htm
:lolflag::rolleyes:

I'm not in a position to defend Microsoft (perish the thought), but they are beholden to their investors and shareholders. What would you have them do, admit Vista was a flop and watch their share price tank. In the present economic climate that would be akin to corporate suicide. Besides it's a common practice in the business world.

[insane_alien]

if i was a share holder, i would be more likely to drop out if i discovered the company was lying about one of its products being a flop than if it actually was a flop and they owned up to it.

if they were more honest then they'd probably learn from their mistakes than accumulating an ever increasing number of them.

[sydbat]

insane_alien is absolutely right! If you have investments, you expect the company to be honest with how the business is doing. If that company lies to investors, they have the right to drop those investments and find ethical companies to invest in. Being told everything is fine, then finding out it is not, is worse for any company than being honest in the first place.

[Vorian Grey]

Microsoft has lied for years. Why should they start telling the truth now?

[rockface]

if i was a share holder, i would be more likely to drop out if i discovered the company was lying about one of its products being a flop than if it actually was a flop and they owned up to it.

if they were more honest then they'd probably learn from their mistakes than accumulating an ever increasing number of them.

This is a Microsoft run by Steve Ballmer, a man not know for his honesty and integrity (remember Linux is a cancer and Linux violates 235 patents). While what you say might be the case in a halcyon world, here and now it is not.

The business of making money and getting rich is rarely altruistic. Do you naively believe most stockholders would sell their shares en masse if Microsoft where seen to be not doing the right thing? Did everyone sell their shares when the American DoJ convicted them of anti-trust abuse under the Sherman act (as toothless as it was)?

I am sure Microsoft's investors are as asute to the financial position of Redmond's finest as they are apathetic as to how Microsoft achieve a profit.

A moral and ethical investor? I just think they got added to the endangered
species list.

[karellen]

A moral and ethical investor? I just think they got added to the endangered
species list.

I love this one :lolflag:

[dca]

I'll have to find the article but it was originally Steve Ballmer who owned up to allowing end user(s) & OEMS the ability to use or get XP after they stop shipping XP. He said it at a conference or something, lemme' look. This, provided they buy the new (and improved, LOL) Vista licenses which offers the ability (built in to the EULA) to downgrade back to XP. Kinda' candy coats it, don't you think?

[motoperpetuo]

i was biking to work this morning, enjoying the summer weather, checking out the snow-capped colorado mountains in the distance, and i started thinking about microsoft for some reason. it occured to me that the fact that MS can put out a flagship product as godawful as vista and not lose their dominance in the desktop OS market is a testament to the depth of the stranglehold they have said market.

i mean, vista, combined with this "install partition" silliness you get with new windows computers nowadays, was the last straw for me. i can't see myself putting anything but linux on a new computer from here on out. yet still, the masses continue to suffer through vista and install partitions, not to mention spyware and viruses.

poor masses.

[newbie2]

Microsoft has lied for years. Why should they start telling the truth now?
It’s worth remembering, though, that retailers aren’t officially allowed to charge for copies of XP any more; instead, for each of these ‘loophole’ sales, the seller has to pay the relevant license fee for Vista to Microsoft. So while it’s misleading to suggest 180 million people have intentionally gone out and bought a copy of Vista to run, Microsoft is still getting the cash in its pocket.
http://vista.blorge.com/2008/07/29/hp-challenges-vista-sales-figures/
:rolleyes: