“Nearly 100 million PCs are likely to be replaced this year, with 120 million being swapped out in 2005, according to data research firm Gartner released Thursday. The volume of replacements in the next two years will surpass the number of units replaced in the run-up to Y2K in 1998 and 1999, Gartner said. In 2004, replacement units will drive global shipments to 186.4 million–an increase of 13.6 percent over 2003,” Dinesh C. Sharma reports for CNET News.
“‘Our first-quarter results suggest the…replacement cycle that vendors have been anticipating for more than a year is under way,’ George Shiffler, principal analyst for Gartner’s client platforms research, said in a statement,” Sharma reports. “Gartner analysts said more than 30 percent of installed PCs are now at least three years old. Many of those machines run older versions of Windows operating systems, for which full technical support may not be available. This, they said, will play a major role in pushing sales of replacements. Strong economic growth in the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and Japan is also likely to boost sales of new PCs.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How many of those 100 million will go from Windows to Mac OS X?
Probably not many at all since most windows users that I see during the day dont like macs at first glance because they are different and more expensive. Most people and corporates will just upgrade their software and apps and internet/mail marshal/firewall with newer versions of the existing apps and renew their license agreements. Some businesses out there will be considering or evaluating other Apps like Linux where applicable, other wise I would imagine that most will stick with Windows in one form or another so that they dont have to upskill their workers to much. The cost of upskilling workers would be a major cost consideration when deciding on investing in a new application compared to the cost of improving existing security.