Windows XP made it's debut towards the end of 2001. At first, people were hesitant to switch over from Windows 2000, and those running Windows ME were more than happy to find a fix for their charade of nonstop problems. That was six years ago. Since then, around 85% of home computers run Windows XP around the globe. Yesterday it was officially announced that Microsoft will retire the XP operating system in 2008. In addition, from 31st January 2008, large PC makers, such as Dell, HP and Toshiba, will no longer be able to buy licences directly from Microsoft for pre-installation on newly sold machines. They can however, obtain these licenses from third party vendors up until 2009.
The majority of users around the globe aren't yet ready to upgrade to the new Windows Vista operating system, and approximately only 10% of current Windows based users have shown any immediate interest in the new product. The recent press for the first round of bugs is a huge deterent, while businesses usually wait until service pack 1 is released before migrating over.
Most importantly though, support will remain for Windows XP as Microsoft realises that the current user base are not ready or willing to upgrade, and that XP still has a fairly long shelf life left. Obviously this also has an inpact on the HD world, because most of our tools, interactivity, and downloadable content are made available to us, and rely upon, software from the home PC.
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