Toshiba and Acer Say 90% of Netbooks Sold are Win XP

Posted by | 12/18/2008 | 4 Comments

Toshiba NB100 NetbookI don’t think this is a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, but Toshiba and Acer are saying that 90% of the Netbooks they are selling (the Acer Aspire One and the Satelitte NB100) are running Windows XP.

The Pocket-lint report also states that Dell is seeing similar trends as is Asus. So, what does that really mean? Are we seeing consumers saying “no thanks” to Linux? Is this a comfort choice from consumers not willing to take a gamble with Linux? I’m guessing yes and it looks like marketing data is confirming that.

“At the time of launch Linux volumes were higher as it was the only offering”, a spokesperson for Asus said. ASUS recognised a demand for a Windows-based netbook. As such, the shift now is more towards Windows due to customer demand for Windows XP being that consumers are more familiar with the Windows platform”.

Where will that put Netbooks, the Open Source crowd, and Microsoft next year? Who knows. But it will be interesting to watch as we get closer to Windows 7.

Via SlashGear



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Category: Hardware

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Warner Crocker is a professional theatre director, producer and playwright and also a Tablet PC enthusiast. He is also a Microsoft MVP for Tablet PCs. Send email to Warner.
  • GoodThings2Life

    This sounds to me like a good number of Netbook sales might really people who just want a “cheap” way to get an XP license to avoid Vista. Never saw that one coming…

  • http://www.umpcportal.com Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine

    I wish the Linux distro guys would just get together and work on ONE SYSTEM. They all think they can create the best OS when in the real world, the only way they can win is to get group together. (oh, and get an app store!)
    Steve

  • davidm

    Steve, several Linux distributions have already had something superior to an “App store” for at least a decade. Red hat/fedora, debian/ubuntu and other distributions have cross system application and update repositories that work very smoothly, and are more integration than what the Microsoft and Apple desktops offer because the vendor isn’t competing with the application developers. They also work across machine architectures. Even Apple isn’t trying to support PowerPC anymore.

    There is a problem of lack of cooperation between distributions, but the competition yields intense innovation. But ultimately this is not quite the time of commodity linux desktops yet. With a bit more refinement, and more of a push over “cloud” based apps, and we’ll be there. Maybe a gOs will break through We’re lucky to have all this competition, and I don’t think there is anything more competitive than open source.

  • Eric C Rusch Jr

    Windows is still far more “plug and play” than Linux. Linux has come a long way, but it’s still not even close in that category. Familiarity to Windows is a big part of it. Most mainstream programs are Windows only. Yeah there are “knockoff” alternatives for most, but it’s not the same. Linux may be great if is preloaded on a system so that the hardware is all 100% compatible, without needing to hack together drivers, and if Firefox is the only thing you plan on using, literally. I think that it’s XP and not vista is just a matter of the system requirements. Windows 7 will probably be the number one pick when it’s released, especially if there’s a version that really does cater to underpowered netbooks and the like.

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