Microsoft Extends Sales of Windows XP

Taking into consideration customer and partner requests, Microsoft will sell Windows XP for another 5 months

In a recent press release Microsoft announced it will eextnd sales of its Windows XP operating system to OEMs and retail channels for five months over the initial end date, through June 30, 2008. The move comes after a great amount of feedback from customers and partners regarding the original end-of-sale date of January 31, 2008.

Mike Nash, the corporate vice president of Windows Product Management, stated, "While we’ve been pleased with the positive response we’ve seen and heard from customers using Windows Vista, there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch to Windows Vista."

Nash went on to say that Microsoft's original policy of a four-year availability of operating systems to OEM and retail channels had been established in 2002. However, due to the delays in the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft felt that offering Windows XP for sale for an additional five months would make more sense.

When asked about what Microsoft was hearing in terms of feedback from customers regarding Windows Vista Nash stated, "With more than 60 million licenses sold as of this summer, Windows Vista is on track to be the fastest-selling operating system in Microsoft’s history."

Microsoft's Nash feels that the strong sales thus far are due to the doubling of sales of pre-built desktop and laptop computers bundled with Windows Vista as the primary OS. However, recently Microsoft also decided to offer OEMs theoption to let customers downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP.