It's one thing when a blogger or a journalist harps on Microsoft for one thing or another - but it's something else entirely when the president of the world's 4th largest PC manufacturer claims "the whole industry is disappointed with Windows Vista." In a statement to Financial Times Deutschland this week, Acer president Gianfranco Lanci bashed Microsoft and their latest OS, citing the fact that many home and business customers of Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo (formerly IBM) and Toshiba are so upset with Vista that they're demanding Windows XP be made available for order. It's a bold statement from a company on the up and up in the paper-thin margin, highly competitive PC industry.Not surprisingly, the other companies joining Acer in the XP bucket haven't made any kind of statement, but they have to be feeling at least some of the same burn. With mainstream users getting confused by Vista's new features and a 3rd party industry dragging their feet to offer support for the new OS, Vista is stuck between a rock and a hard place, struggling to gain market share from adopters who are reluctant to make the leap until support for all their existing software and peripherals arrives. Frustration and hesitation is further compounded by the fact that Windows 7, or 'Vienna,' is right around the corner for 2009 or 2010, as it is reported to be a complete rewrite of the Windows code base from the ground up, requiring everyone to follow suit with complete rewrites of their software and drivers.
Aside from niche markets and power users, Lanci might have been half right with his statement. Though instead of being 'disappointed' with Vista, it seems like the industry might simply be 'disinterested' in the OS, at least for now.
[via 1 Microsoft Way]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-25-2007 @ 10:46PM
Dr Rumble said...
I, for one, do not like Vista. It's a lot of gloss filled with unnecessary additions and meaningless exclusions. Overall, it's a lackluster effort. It needs a couple of service packs before I would consider switching.
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7-25-2007 @ 11:21PM
ECS said...
Switched from Windows 98 to the vista home premium OS in early july, much to my suprise it was a completely new format that I initially was some-what dissatisfied with and must say at this point am not completely impressed with due to its freezing up during the most trivial tasks hoping that once I achieve the learning curve it will become what I had expected.
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7-25-2007 @ 11:27PM
johnny said...
I have had Vista for almost 4 months now and i am beyond considering buying a OEM Version of windows xp pro.
I am getting pretty tired of waiting for the software companys to catch up.
The downside is i'll lose windows media player. makes a great VCR. i wouldnt use that for much of anything else though.
i could always use both but i heard there are problems with a dual OS when it comes to vista.
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7-26-2007 @ 1:48AM
Brian McBride said...
I use Vista now. Works ok, getting used to it. Yea, I would like some people to get their drivers in gear, but for the most part they work fine. Only a couple there here and there I find funky.
Waiting for the next OS from Microsoft?! How long was Vista delayed? Come on...
Also, I think manufacturers should make more universal drivers (similar to nVidia). Or more to the point, they want to sell equipment, support it. I hate lazy manufactures.
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7-26-2007 @ 2:24AM
Lee said...
The people have spoken and they're saying NO to DRM-laden OS's this year.
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7-26-2007 @ 6:52AM
campero said...
Is it me or we always do this when there is a new release of Windows? When XP was newly released everybody hated it, no one wanted it, people requested for the old windows blah, blah...Now with Vista the same...maybe it's not Windows maybe it us who are always reluctant to change or new things...
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7-26-2007 @ 8:09AM
Claudiu Spulber said...
acer should consider selling systems bundled with ubuntu, just like dell does. and send the money that they spare this way (by not paying microsoft) as a donation to ubuntu, to speed up the development.
who are we kidding...
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7-26-2007 @ 10:48AM
David Chartier said...
I sold computers at Circuit City in Colorado through the XP hype and release period. From my perspective, people seemed a lot more excited about it. The new OS seemed like a more genuine progression of Windows features, and aside from the big blue/green UI shift that some people freaked about, it went a heckuva lot smoother due to what I believe was far, far less 'change for the sake of change.'
Why Microsoft seemingly hasn't devised some way to get 3rd parties excited about new OSes and/or offer incentives for them to get their asses in gear *to be ready at launch* is completely beyond me. They always want bragging rights for adoption rates when an OS is launched, and yet they aren't doing anything to get the necessary 3rd party constituency on board to make that adoption a reality.
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7-27-2007 @ 11:39AM
hazard said...
Windows Vista is just an operating system .. if you want to do something useful with it you have to install stuff.
Apple on the other hand has spent a lot of effort in producing/bundling value-add applications with it's OS.
Vista is quite a good OS but it is different to XP so it's requires effort.
Took me two days to de-crappify, setup and tweak my brother's new Vaio and he loves it. From what I saw Microsoft and Sony were equally to blame for the laptops shabby out-of-the-box performance. It now runs like a dream with a bucket-load of useful, productive apps, but I doubt that most of Sony's customers would want to spend two days doing this .. my brother certainly would not have nor would have even known where to start!
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7-31-2007 @ 4:33AM
kizwan said...
I have tried Windows Vista. It actually great. But I didn't try long enough to know it stability. I installed it to my old PC, running with AMD Athlon XP processor with 1GB memory. Windows Vista boot much faster than I expected. It support my basic hardware (driver. motherboard + graphic card + sound) but didn't support my add-on card such as my TV card and my old Creative SB Live!. It ok though, because I know not all old hardware is supported. I look forward to install Windows Vista at my new acer laptop. :)
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