Last-minute moves by businesses to scrap Windows XP may have offset the continued free fall in consumer spending, but that gift from XP won't help the PC industry for long.



From Computerworld:

And when U.S. companies finally finish ditching XP, consumers had better make up the difference if shipments aren't going to plummet again this year.

"In Japan, the XP to Windows 7 migration started earlier, and is essentially over, or almost over," said Rajani Singh, an analyst with IDC. "In the U.S. we see something else. The momentum wasn't as robust in Q1, hence [migrations] are continuing. In the U.S. that will affect shipments in Q2 and in parts of Q3 as well."
Windows XP lives

IDC's estimate for the March quarter pegged worldwide PC shipments at 73.4 million, down 4.4% compared to the year before, a depressing number for OEMs but not as dark as what IDC had predicted earlier, when it had forecast the first-quarter contraction at 5.3%. In the U.S., the decline was less than 1%.

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