The IT Nerd

Another sign that Windows 8 has failed miserably is the news that HP has once again started selling Windows 7 PCs:

Hewlett-Packard today launched a new online promotion that discounts several consumer PCs by $150 when equipped with Windows 7, saying the four-year-old OS is “back by popular demand.”

“The reality is that there are a lot of people who still want Windows 7,” said Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research, in a Monday interview. “This is a twist, though, and may appeal to those who said, ‘I do want a new PC, but I thought I couldn’t get Windows 7.'”

HP has not discarded Windows 8.1 — the perception-plagued dual-UI operating system — nor resurrected Windows 7 from the crypt: The PC seller, like every other OEM (original equipment manufacturer) in Microsoft’s orbit, has never stopped selling Windows 7.

But HP was the first major OEM — it was the world’s second-largest in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to research firm IDC — to blatantly market Windows 7 PCs to consumers since Windows 8’s first few months, said O’Donnell.

So, why would HP do this? The bad karma that surrounds Windows 8 is likely keeping people from buying new PCs, or sending them to the Apple store for a Mac. Either way, it’s not good if you make your living selling PCs. Thus it’s better to bring back an OS people actually like rather than push on with one that they don’t.

One wonders how this is going over in Redmond.

This entry was posted on January 21, 2014 at 9:58 am and is filed under Commentary with tags HP, Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows 8. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.