Policy Of Coercion. Has It Given Vista The
Sniffles?
Author: Vistasgottogo

There is an interesting process in the way that Microsoft has
rolled out their latest Operating System, titled, Vista.

This operating system came with no downgrade rights. It was not
placed in a CD case like the others and when it was launched via
PC manufacturers the previous version as a competitor, was
eliminated- more like forbidden to be sold after the launch of
the new operating system.

Even the EULA, was rewritten with very restrictive rights. So
much so that the Free Software Foundation launched a campaign
against it and many consumer groups are recommending not using
it for now.

This all has resulted in a market slow down for PC
manufacturers and and a shunning of the product by retail
consumers. Many are saying that this is Windows Millennium all
over again. But on careful examination, it actually looks more
like the roll out of Windows 95. A major similarity is that,
like Windows 95, Vista is also appears to be quietly beta tested
on the consumer market.

This testing is causing unfavorable market changes which
Microsoft is perhaps feeling at present. This may be
demonstrated by the latest statistics in the retail PC markets.

While sales in the retail PC market continue to drop it's no
wonder PC manufacturers have reverted back to selling XP
machines along with the new Vista Machines.

So exactly what is going on here?

If we look at a few relationships, we can begin to piece
together the motivations. While Microsoft holds a strong market
share in the PC marketplace, it is the PC manufacturers who are
their biggest customer. This customer represents a whopping 80%
of all operating system sales. The retail market represents a
paltry 20% of the sales.

With the recent "Vista" roll-out Microsoft set policy with
these manufacturers that required them to offer "only" Vista on
all new PC's sold. And with glee these manufacturers did just
that.

Prior to Vista's roll-out, PC sales for 2005 to 2006 were, to
say the least, very slow.

So naturally PC manufacturers were looking for a boost and
stringent terms don't look like "arm bending" when you have
nothing to lose and everything to gain unless of course...

As you can imagine Vista sales are very closely tied to PC
sales. So if PC sales are down and operating system sales are up
a huge gap is created in the process. The "fall guy" is, you
guessed right, the PC manufacturer.

As you can see, the coercive step went unnoticed simply due to
market conditions for PC manufacturers.

Ok, let's look at something more critical to the adoption of
this new operating system.

In the past, Microsoft made available methods to "downgrade" to
the previous version if the current version didn't work with
your hardware or you just didn't like the "new and improved".

With Vista, there was no provision for downgrades created.
Microsoft seems to have taken the attitude this time around as
did Admiral David G. Farragut said, during the Civil War, "Damn
the torpedoes, full speed ahead," then the battle cry of
Microsoft is "Damn the end user, full speed ahead."

So Vista to the rescue? Not quite! Did Microsoft and the
vendors forget the trump card?

Yes... the end user.

Several months into the release of this new operating system
retail sales plummeted and business sales slowed dramatically.

What happened?

see part two:
http://www.urlfreeze.com/urltrack/VistaNews/


About The Author: Haven't you had enough? "Vistas Got to Go"
provides a place to rant. A place to vent your frustrations. A
place to share tips and news about Vista. Don't be a part of the
silent majority- Speak Out and let your voice be heard!
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