Boxed Vista Sales Down Compared To XP

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Although sales of computers were up almost seventy percent on the week Windows Vista was released, boxed copies aren’t doing as well. According to ZDNet, sales of boxed copies are down compared to the Windows XP launch by as much as 32%.

The market research firm's data showed the number of copies of Vista purchased was nearly 59 percent less than the number for its predecessor XP, looking at the first week of sales. Revenue was also down, but less dramatically, with the dollar value of first-week Vista sales off 32 percent from that seen with XP.
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I think at least part of this might be due to people being worried that their PCs aren't going to be able to run Vista
 
Price price price. I have had so many people coming into my store and B&M'ing over the retail boxed Vista prices, esp. Ultimate. The OEM version is priced nicely, the retail boxed versions are ludicrously priced. Around here, price is king. People will literally drive across town, wasting gas, to save $0.50 on a similar product. Pretty sad. :(
 
piako said:
why don't they just buy the oem? why do you even sell the retail?
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Buying retail provides Microsoft support. If your OS is OEM, your support comes from whoever built your computer, or yourself in many cases.
 
its all in the cost. With the Upgrade not being able to do clean installs and the full retail costs being like $200-$400 depending on what you get most people will figure it easier just to buy a PC with Vista preinstalled.
 
stabilep said:
its all in the cost. With the Upgrade not being able to do clean installs and the full retail costs being like $200-$400 depending on what you get most people will figure it easier just to buy a PC with Vista preinstalled.
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There's a workaround to clean install the upgrade versions.
 
It's because boxed Vista is so blasted expensive. Compare:

Home Basic: retail is $200, OEM is $100
Home Premium: retail is $240, OEM is $120
Business: retail is $300, OEM is $150
Ultimate: retail is $400, OEM is $200

Who in their right mind would buy retail when OEM is half the cost? The only disadvantage to OEM is that you are locked into one motherboard, wheras retail lets you change motherboards once, but guess what: one retail version will cost you the same as two OEM versions! Its stupid to buy anything but OEM when its so cheap and has no strings attached.
 
It still has "strings attached." For most of us, these strings aren't a big deal. Call up Microsoft if we swap it to a different mobo, or go through the hassle of the upgrade to a clean install process. For the common user, this isn't something they want to hassle with.

Add to that the potential driver issues and no real advantage currently over XP, and you have all the "experts" recommending to their friends to hold off. I've talked at least 3 people out of purchasing Vista yet. Realistically, Microsoft has failed (thus far) to make purchase-worthy changes to their newest OS. The aero interface and the promise of dx10 gaming are nifty, but certainly not worth it to many people.

I have no doubt Vista will do well as it moves forward, but I think that it's going to be a slow growth for them.
 
not everyone knows that there is an OEM (or even what OEM means). i have also read about people who purchased PC with a Vista "upgrade", and they are still waiting for the upgrade.


i have also had many experiences with clients who asked "is the OEM legal?" :rolleyes:

the average person does not know, or even want to know all of this. as a consumer, they should (among many other reasons), but the fact is most people don't care, they just want it to be painless from a tech standpoint, and many will suffer the price tag if they are made to feel the bog of tech problems will be avoided...ahhh marketing, and then there are the PC-Mac commercials :p

i am definitely waiting for drivers to arrive, and mature, not to mention for several reasons to invest in DX10 hardware...maybe around the time of SP1 ?
 
I don’t think this means much without data from online sales.

I would like to know how much total sales were down when you include online sales. Online sales were miniscule when XP was released online sales are huge now.
 
And they are suprised? Who wants to install this with the crappy vendor drivers lurking around?

Also, it's expensive.
 
increase. Also no sli support for directx 10. I think alot of people are also holding off until operating system matures. I know myself I am gonna wait till my 680I board and nvidia drivers have less bugs.

No real game out yet to take advantage of Directx 10
 
Sorry, didn't clarify my previous post: I don't work in a large retail store, ala Worst Buy, inCOMPetentUSA, etc. Small local store. We don't sell the retial boxed versions, only OEM to dealers and new system builds.
 
InorganicMatter said:
It's because boxed Vista is so blasted expensive. Compare:

Home Basic: retail is $200, OEM is $100
Home Premium: retail is $240, OEM is $120
Business: retail is $300, OEM is $150
Ultimate: retail is $400, OEM is $200

Who in their right mind would buy retail when OEM is half the cost?
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Anyone that's ever experienced a mobo failure, or maybe wants to swap out a mobo?
 
jstnomega said:
Anyone that's ever experienced a mobo failure, or maybe wants to swap out a mobo?
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I guess dialing on the phone is hard? That's all I had to do in the past to get Windows XP OEM reactivated. Have we become that much of a one click society?
 
bpmurrGT said:
I guess dialing on the phone is hard? That's all I had to do in the past to get Windows XP OEM reactivated. Have we become that much of a one click society?
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Does the label Information Age answer your question?
 
jstnomega said:
Anyone that's ever experienced a mobo failure, or maybe wants to swap out a mobo?
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You left out the important part of my post (the one that answers your question) when you quoted it. :rolleyes: Take Basic for an example:

1 Retail Vista - 2 motherboards - $200
2 OEM Vistas - 2 motherboards - 2x$100 = $200

Same cost either way. ;)
 
But the other half of the retail cost is to reimburse MS for their tech support wages.

Or something ;)
 
Who cares if anyone buys it, as long as it has stronger antipiracy protection than XP Microsoft should be happy since piracy rates are down.
 
Originally Posted by InorganicMatter
1 Retail Vista - 2 motherboards - $200
2 OEM Vistas - 2 motherboards - 2x$100 = $200
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I could be wrong, but I didn't think there was a limit on Retail. I've reinstalled my Retail XP on multiple motherboards over the last 4 years. Maybe this has changed for Vista.

I have read that Microsoft might be cracking down on the OEM Vista by not activating it on subsequent motherboards. (even if you do call them)
 
Is it possible that people have discovered that Vista doesn't offer them anything that their current OS (XP) provides. There's no value in it. The only thing you'll miss is the pretty colors.
 
ICOM said:
Is it possible that people have discovered that Vista doesn't offer them anything that their current OS (XP) provides. There's no value in it. The only thing you'll miss is the pretty colors.
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The same could be said of every Windows upgrade since the move to Windows 95.

In fact, I would wager that Vista offers MORE than any upgrade since then. In my opinion as someone who spends about 16 hours a day behind a screen extensively using every OS since DOS 3.2 or so, Vista offers more of an upgrade than any OS upgrade since my move from Windows 3.1 to 95. It's definitely the first upgrade that I feel like I've gotten my money's worth (OEM 64-bit Ultimate) out of in the past 10 years.

First, it should be noted that MS never expected box sales of Vista to do as well as XP. It has always said that Vista sales will mirror new PC sales with very little coming from outside of that.

I think there's a large variety of reasons why Vista box sales are lagging, the two largest o ones being...

1> PC prices have come down on average and PCs are now considered more of a 'disposable' good than they were 5 years ago. 12 years ago the idea of buying a whole new PC for Win95 was outrageous; PCs were expensive, so a LOT of people bought the box. The same thing happened to a lesser extent with the advent of Win98. 5 years ago it was slightly less outrageous to buy a whole new PC just for the OS as cheap PC-makers really drove prices down, making it more difficult to justify a $200 XP upgrade when you could buy a whole good PC for $1000. Now it's considered commonplace to replace your PC on a regular basis. Your average consumer isn't going to go through the trouble of buying a $200-$400 piece of software when that's about half what they plan on spending for an entirely new PC (Vista included) in another year or so. Even amongst a more 'enthusaist' crowd it's becoming more common to buy systems as the ability to buy high-end hardware (with Vista included) from just about anywhere is more common. No longer are you pretty much limited to build-your-own or Alienware (or their like) if you want a serious gaming machine. You can get a Dell and get something fairly decent at a good price that is more than sufficient for your average non-hardcore PC gamer.

2> Amongst the enthusiast crowd, both hardcore and not-so-hardcore, premature drivers are scaring a large number away. The driver issues with Vista are FAR greater than those experienced by any other OS upgrade, particularly with regards to nVidia. DRM and likes isn't helping matters amongst this crowd either.
 
what fuck are people talking about with price and shit? it costs the same amount xp did. sales are most likely not as high because the previous os isnt such a mess (98)
 
Martyr said:
I upgraded in the past because I wanted NTFS file system or USB support or better networking ability or the software (games) I purchased required a new OS. Stuff like that.

My neighbor installed Vista over the weekend and he let me examine the new OS. I spent about an hour fiddling with it. It's nice but I'm not impressed enough to spend my money on it. Evidently, current sales figures would indicate others share this sentiment but I'll happily upgrade to Vista when I need to.
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ICOM said:
I upgraded in the past because I wanted NTFS file system or USB support or better networking ability or the software (games) I purchased required a new OS. Stuff like that.

My neighbor installed Vista over the weekend and he let me examine the new OS. I spent about an hour fiddling with it. It's nice but I'm not impressed enough to spend my money on it. Evidently, current sales figures would indicate others share this sentiment but I'll happily upgrade to Vista when I need to.
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But see, that's the thing. Vista offers more new features than any Windows revision to date, and yet people seem to be burying their heads in the sand screaming "Windows XP forever!" (which actually translates to "Vista is too hard to pirate!") Among other things, Vista offers a revolutionary new graphics architecture, a completely redesigned (and bulletproof) network code, a search function to rival OSX's File Finder, and deployment/active directory features that previously only existed in every IT manager's wet dreams. But oh no, don't bother giving credit where it is due, why would we want to actually put a good word in for Microsoft? :rolleyes:
 
Night_Hawk-19 said:
increase. Also no sli support for directx 10. I think alot of people are also holding off until operating system matures. I know myself I am gonna wait till my 680I board and nvidia drivers have less bugs.

No real game out yet to take advantage of Directx 10
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FACT!!! so why bother! they deserve to see shit sales cause there is shit for it! let all the moronic tech weenies who jump blindly bitch and gripe about no support and/or poor results. too frikin bad! deal with your dx10 gpu/vista upgrade that gives nothing but headaches :rolleyes:
 
aramis said:
I've talked at least 3 people out of purchasing Vista yet.
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Same here. A buddy of mine got a Dell Inspiron 1501 (forget number) and it didn't even run. It came with vista home basic 32 loaded. I spent about 2-3 hours getting it barebones and it ran pretty fast, but out of the box it was a complete lag (soooo slow). Turion crap.
Ockie said:
Who wants to install this with the crappy vendor drivers lurking around?
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Exactly! I'm still working with abit, thursby software, and nvidia to iron out driver problems. But it's fun being part of the process.
bpmurrGT said:
I guess dialing on the phone is hard? That's all I had to do in the past to get Windows XP OEM reactivated. Have we become that much of a one click society?
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GJSNeptune said:
Does the label Information Age answer your question?
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Re-activating windows is a complete PITA. I had to call about 4 times before I could actually complete the process. First attempt, phone rep hung up on me. Second, had to re-dial because I messed up something. Thrid, VOIP lags. Fouth, got it.

Took about 1 fucking hour.
Martyr said:
what fuck are people talking about with price and shit? it costs the same amount xp did. sales are most likely not as high because the previous os isnt such a mess (98)
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My professor was telling us that 98 is still the most widely installed os in corp. ?
InorganicMatter said:
But see, that's the thing. Vista offers more new features than any Windows revision to date, and yet people seem to be burying their heads in the sand screaming "Windows XP forever!" (which actually translates to "Vista is too hard to pirate!") Among other things, Vista offers a revolutionary new graphics architecture, a completely redesigned (and bulletproof) network code, a search function to rival OSX's File Finder, and deployment/active directory features that previously only existed in every IT manager's wet dreams. But oh no, don't bother giving credit where it is due, why would we want to actually put a good word in for Microsoft? :rolleyes:
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I completely agree. Vista is very nice to use.

It just crahses on me about 1-2 times every day now. Networking still has bugs in the permissions area, plus my nforce drivers fail to operate at 1000 Mbit full duplex.
 
piako said:
It just crahses on me about 1-2 times every day now. Networking still has bugs in the permissions area, plus my nforce drivers fail to operate at 1000 Mbit full duplex.
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Well, that's what you get for using anything but Intel chipsets and CPUs. :p :D I'm running an all-Intel system and Vista is a smooth as butter and a solid as a rock.
 
As already mentioned, for the regular home user, it's the price.

Why would the average computer user want to spend $200-$400 on a new OS to put on their $500-$1000 computer they just purchased in the last 6-12 months? That doesn't seem like a very good deal. Especially when their current OS is running fine and does what they want.

What differences will the average computer user see between XP and Vista? About the only thing most of them would see or use on a regular basis is the Aero interface. It seems many people don't see that as worth $200-$400.

It does not surprise me that Vista isn't selling well in retail. Then again, it was never Microsoft's plan to sell a lot in retail, at least in the beginning. They get their penetration in the Dell/Compaq/Gateway market as pre-installed.

 
SmokeRngs said:
Really? I suggest you go to a retail store where the average person does their shopping.
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OK, fine, prices from my local Frys:

XP Home Upgrade - $100
XP Home Full - $200
Vista Basic Upgrade - $100
Vista Basic Full - $200

I really don't see your point, Vista still costs the same as XP, no matter which way you slice it. ;)
 
They could be overlooking one crucial bit of information in their comparison...I don't seem to remember a pre-release sale of OEM software prior to the release of XP or buy an upgradable version of XP and qualify for an OEM upgrade to Vista type of promotion prior to the release of XP. That and the proliferation of new PCs coming preloaded with Vista and/or XP with upgrade certificate....at any rate, it seems to me that they are comparing apples to oranges.
 
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