Dell is offering an "option" for users to buy Windows XP and its old technology, on a few of their systems. It turns out a "Digg" like Ideastorm blog that Dell operates, has produced a highly suspect, possibly rigged, voting system of limited economic utility. It probably has been moblogged. And this announcement of "demand" for XP by consumers is a result.
Predictably, the anti-Microsoft blogosphere has turned a routine piece of Dell PR, into yet another Microsft is "dead" storyline.
It would be stunning for a consumer to choose XP over Vista on a NEW machine which is fully capable of supporting the new technologies offered in the new OS. Stunning. I don't even think most anti-Microsoft bloggers would do that if somehow they were forced to give up their Macs and made to choose between XP and Vista. ;-)
I predict this story dies rather quickly, and we will never really find out how tiny the actual number of Dell customers choosing old over new, really is.
We only have a few more days before true facts Begin to reveal themselves in the 1st quarter Microsoft earnings release. Until then, expect the megaphone carrying critics of all things Microsoft to inundate the blogosphere with their highly biased guesswork.
