Windows 7 Launch Did Not Grow PC Sales as Hoped
Posted 11/06/09 at 06:46:00 PM by Ryan Whitwam
PC vendors were hoping that the launch of the much anticipated Windows 7 would result in a sales boost. The first reports from those vendors, however, are not painting a very rosy picture. Most vendors report only modest increases in sales.
We know that sales of standalone upgrade licenses for Windows 7 were very good at launch, but it seems not many people went out to get a new PC. Vendors are not expecting sales to pick up in 2009. This may be due, in part, to the fact that Vista users can easily upgrade their existing hardware to the lighter weight Windows 7.
Some notebook manufacturers produced extra units running Windows 7 in anticipation of high demand. With demand ending up weaker than expected, these PCs end up discounted. Expect PC prices to continue to slide. Good for us, not so much for the manufacturers and vendors.

I don't ever remember
Submitted by Ntldr on Mon, 11/09/2009 - 7:14am
I don't ever remember hearing MS saying that it was going to boost computers sales. In fact I think they said that it may be the oposite because Windows 7 will run even on a 5 year old computer pretty well and it actually does. I also think that who ever stated that was looking for a pipe dream to pick up on every thing and pull them all out of the crap they are in. When in reality they should have looked at what Windows 7 was capable of running on and made their projections from there. Not only that but like others have said who is going to buy a new computer in late October when Black Friday is coming up or even the Holiday season where there are tons of deals on new computers.
Unemployment 10.2%
Submitted by MeTo on Sat, 11/07/2009 - 6:25pm
Unemployment 10.2% Guess what unemployment checks buy groceries not computers or new operating systems. Even Microsoft just announced another 800 layoffs.
Custom Building
Submitted by fnordfnord on Sat, 11/07/2009 - 1:08pm
A lot of people are custom building PC's now. Also it is not like the lower priced PC's are going to hurt their pocket any. If it was really hurting them, they would get out of the business. They just won't be able to take the big hunk of change they wanted for the crap they put into their PC's.
Only the people with very
Submitted by dj-anon on Sat, 11/07/2009 - 10:23am
Only the people with very old hardware will feel compelled to upgrade. Windows 7 just runs very smoothly on low end laptops and PCs.
wow
Submitted by mesiah on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 8:39pm
Sometimes I wonder if the people that make market predictions really have any actual common sense, or if they just have their nose buried so deep in the numbers that they can't see 2 feet in front of them. Allow me to point out a small little tidbit. Anyone who is smart enough to wait until windows 7 launches to buy a new computer should also be smart enough to wait 1 more month before buying it. And why would they do that? How about a little thing called black friday. Anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't buy any electronic product between now and thanksgiving unless they absolutely needed it now or the price was extremely good. Lets wait until December 25th and then decide what effect windows 7 had on computer sales. Maybe it won't have any, but saying it didn't right now is like picking the Superbowl champion at the start of the season.
Extreme Greed
Submitted by camskip on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 7:41pm
Vendors are upset because of "modest gains"? They should be happy for any gains at all. The way the economy is doing, they ought to be happy that they are not experiencing a sales drop!
Give it some time
Submitted by SillyElf74 on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 5:26pm
PC vendors need to relax a bit. Win7 has been out for what, 16 days now? Did they really expect sales to increase that much in 2 weeks? I think with the holidays coming soon, new PC's will begin to move off of shelves. I know I'm buying my son a laptop with Win7 on it for Christmas. Maybe the sales won't quite be what the vendors are hoping for, but most of us are still in belt tightening mode. I would be surprised if new PC sales are not up in Q1/Q2 of 2010.
REally... time is good...
Submitted by ratknight on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 6:00pm
Yeah, my grandmother is still running Windows 98, and I convinced her to hold off on a new comp until 7 was out (I tried the beta, so I knew early). So, I do think that as people hear how awesome 7 is, they'll upgrade.
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