Microsoft will soon stop releasing security updates and patches for Windows XP, and though the news of the retirement may seem like dire news for those that still depend on the old OS, analysts believe that there is a pretty neat upside to it as well.
In other words, some companies should be excited as we near the end of support date for XP.
Gartner recently revealed in a new research that the retirement of Windows XP has actually increased sales of new PCs in the United States. And the shipments are expected to grow as we near the official retirement date of the classic operating system.
The principal analyst at Gartner, Mikako Kitagawa, said in a statement:
“Our preliminary results indicate that this reduced market decline was attributed to solid growth in the professional market. Three of the major professional PC suppliers, HP, Dell and Lenovo, all registered better than U.S. average growth rate. The end of Windows XP support potentially drove the remaining PC refresh in the U.S. professional market.”
How this notion translates to in real life should be evident when the numbers for the next few quarters fly in, but even if it can stop the bleeding — the dangerous double digit declines — it will be news worth reporting. The way things are going right now, the situation is downright desperate.
Microsoft has, for what it’s worth, outlined its desire to see Windows XP drop to a 10 percent market share before April next year. This still amounts to millions upon millions of users and businesses, however, but a few notches below the market share the ancient operating system currently enjoys.
Latest estimates have put Windows XP as powering nearly 37 percent of computers worldwide.
