“DSG, which runs the PC World and Currys chains, warned today that disappointing sales of Microsoft’s Vista operating system have cost it £20m in lost profit,” Julia Finch and Graeme Wearden report for The Guardian.
“The retailer said that sales of computers running Vista, and boxed copies of the software, had both failed to meet its expectations,” Finch and Wearden report.
“DSG had expected consumers to trade up their hardware to use the new operating system and the group’s PC World chain ordered in tens of thousands more laptops in anticipation. But the rush never arrived and PC World was forced to slash prices to get rid of the overstocks – cutting margins by 200 basis points,” Finch and Wearden report.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Vista: Microsoft’s Windows Albatross. Ultimate edition.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “twelveightyone” for the heads up.]
No comment’s? I guess there’s not much more to say!
I know what’ll get this off your thumb drive…..
Just wait. In five years, consumers will come around.
It takes that long for Windows users to boot up and load their home pages..
So, now they’re pinning their hopes on the Palm Foleo, HTC Touch and the Dell Ditty.
I’ve never understood how people can say ‘lost profit’. There are never any guarantees for making profit to begin with. Profit isn’t a birthright for companies. How can you lose something you never had.
Just like the RIAA saying lost sales for ALL digital downloads. No guarantee they would have ever bought to begin with.
Note: 200 basis points = 2%.
200 just has more drama than 2%.
Dex
Don’t forget the SamSung Blue “Craig”….
Who was the schmuck who ordered tens of thousands of laptops in the hope people would buy Vista???
I bet he feels like a dickhead now!
I dont think it will be too long before Windows markets share drops down to about 60%. Id guess probably by the end of 2011.
I don’t believe this guy. Microsoft says that Vista has exceeded expectations (and I doubt a company that prestegious would lie). The only logical conclusion is that this retail chain is doing something wrong. My guess is that they’ve figured out some way to keep the demo machines running and let users see that they’re paying for. If he had any brains at all, he’d know that you’re supposed to cripple the machines, blame the problems on unsupervised kids, and promis that Vista will work great once the customer gets it home. Doesn’t this guy know anything?!?!?!
From what we are experiencing with the latest “gold” build of Leopard, may I suggest to MDN that it’s a bit premature to keep on trashing the standard by which Apple and it’s products are judged.
Our best IT guy says this… (1) get a PC box or enclosure of any kind – including any Mac container – (2) wipe the drive to get rid of all extraneous crap and crud, (3) install any version of Vista and watch it rock ‘n roll. Stable as a rock, a great experience.
Mac machines will come with Leopard and start off clean as a whistle. So, what if Leopard doesn’t work. Then what?
“Profit isn’t a birthright for companies.”
But that contradicts the MS business plan. Right?
Silly wabbit, Microsoft still got their money from these poorly informed dimwits. Ha. Ha.
Having played with the pre-Gold build, I’d say that Caution Ahead is a wee bit pessimistic. Perhaps he’s an El Reg reader. Nothing wrong with that, of course.
559 was already pretty tight. There were issues here and there, but no great instabilities, and the system was quite fast, even on my G4 1.5 GHz PowerBook, running on FW800 from an external disk. I felt the slowdown coming back to Tiger.
There are small things, and there will continue to be small things. Compared to the Jag->Tiger transition, though, it will be No Big Deal®
“Our best IT guy . . .”
Wasn’t he the guy that was standing by a highway off ramp a week ago holding a cardboard sign that said, “W1ll backup data 4 food”?
And maybe their “best IT guy” lacks necessary experience or perspective. We simply don’t know. He might be a genius… but again unknown.
As the report states, DSG bought tens of thousands more Vista laptops in the anticipation that Vista would make them a nice profit on Windows users buying new hardware to then run Vista.
It is that failure of Windows users to do that in sufficient numbers for DSG to then profit on their tens of thousands of laptops they bought in order to then sell.
Maybe Windows users have really seen the light and come over to the Macintosh? Talk about Halo effect and also welcome to truer computing nirvana.
DSG Retail via their brand PC World & Curries aren’t going to close up and disappear, I hope not at least as they do sell Apple hardware as well. However DSG Retail will think twice about how many Windows laptop computers they buy for sale in future.
This recorded £20 Million makes me wonder about the true credibility of Microsoft. Didn’t MS report that Vista is selling like hot cakes? Not when such huge retailers announce losses like this.
Your Frustration. Our Fault.
I just helped a friend getting rid of Vista and reinstalling XP on his laptop because (his own words): “It was slow, nothing worked, it was annoying”
I have to confess it was my first Vista experience, and personally, anwering 6 question when inserting a USB drive it just ridiculous. Vista is plain awful.
Anway, I told my friend to get a Mac instead next time.
There was no rush because people didn’t think they needed Vista. They just kept on buying PCs like they used to, and PCs just happen to have Vista inflicted upon them nowadays. Joe Average obviously doesn’t seem to care, although many would like to have XP on their machines. And, apparently, many have come to think about choices. You know what that means.
“Our best IT guy says…”
I love that phrase! It has to be the best oxymoron I’ve ever seen.
Your IT guy is about protecting the IT department, not lowly users like you. Not even if you’re the CEO. Wake up and smell the snake oil he’s peddling.
This what happens when business doesn’t keep an eye to the maket and beleives it’s suppliers with out questing them… crap + less profits!
And then there there was only one… APPLE!
Here’s something else today in the UK…
The largest telecoms company in the UK is BT. Today it has a major alert on its email systems which have been falling over since this morning.
A client of mine rang and complained and their first response was to say it was Outlook and “BT DOES NOT SUPPORT MICROSOFT PRODUCTS”!
When this happens you know Microsoft -and probably BT too- are going to have major problems in the future…
the world is going to be ready for the taking by Apple.
To: Mr Steve “Monkey boy” Ballmer, how do you spell Vista? “E D S A L”. Keep up the good work.
Have a nice day.
Miss Alice Addertongue
@ Miss Alice:
I think you meant E-D-S-E-L…
Like we all know that the huge numbers of Vista shipments that Gates and Ballmer continue to spew out of their mouth are actually editions shipped with PC’s. The users are then forced to delete it and re-install XP. But MS is more than happy to add that number to their marketing spin.