Microsoft gives hope to XP fans
Microsoft gives hope to XP fans
by ??? on Sat May 10, 2008 1:22 am
he operating system is set to be pulled off shelves this year but Steve Ballmer says that could change with 'customer feedback.'
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer
offered a glimmer of hope on Thursday to fans of the company's XP
operating system, saying the company may reconsider its decision to
stop selling XP soon.
But Ballmer was adamant that "most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista."
"That's the statistical truth," he told reporters at a news conference
at Louvain-La-Neuve University. "If customer feedback varies, we can
always wake up smarter."
Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store
shelves by June 30 have plastered the Internet with blog posts,
cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to
Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer
launch in January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who
are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.
Some 160,000 people already have signed an online Save XP Web petition
who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows
is released, currently targeted for 2010.
On another issue, Ballmer said he was very confident that Microsoft's
$44 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. (YHOO, Fortune 500) was "a very good
price."
He refused to say if the company plans to appeal a fine of $1.3 billion that the European Union levied in February.
Microsoft has until the first week of May to launch a legal challenge
against the EU decision that it had not obeyed a 2004 antitrust order
to share communications information with rivals.
Joking with the media and even breaking into good French, Ballmer
acknowledged that he's finding it hard to keep up with social
networking on the Facebook Web site.
"I do have a profile on Facebook," he said. "It's hard to keep up. I get many friend requests from people I don't know."
"There's about 10 Steve Ballmers and I'm only one of them. I'm the one
who actually has a picture that looks like me on it!" he said. "I'm
hitting a golf ball, that's the real Steve Ballmer."
He was in Belgium to open a Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) innovation
center in the southern city of Mons that hopes to boost new startups in
the country, creating some 200 jobs over the next three years.
LOUVAIN-LA-NEUVE, Belgium (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer
offered a glimmer of hope on Thursday to fans of the company's XP
operating system, saying the company may reconsider its decision to
stop selling XP soon.
But Ballmer was adamant that "most people who buy PCs today buy them with Vista."
"That's the statistical truth," he told reporters at a news conference
at Louvain-La-Neuve University. "If customer feedback varies, we can
always wake up smarter."
Fans of the six-year-old operating system set to be pulled off store
shelves by June 30 have plastered the Internet with blog posts,
cartoons and petitions recently. They trumpet its superiority to
Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, whose consumer
launch in January was greeted with lukewarm reviews.
Ballmer said the customers buying PCs with XP are IT departments who
are having trouble shifting old machines to newer technology.
Some 160,000 people already have signed an online Save XP Web petition
who want Microsoft to keep selling it until the next version of Windows
is released, currently targeted for 2010.
On another issue, Ballmer said he was very confident that Microsoft's
$44 billion offer for Yahoo Inc. (YHOO, Fortune 500) was "a very good
price."
He refused to say if the company plans to appeal a fine of $1.3 billion that the European Union levied in February.
Microsoft has until the first week of May to launch a legal challenge
against the EU decision that it had not obeyed a 2004 antitrust order
to share communications information with rivals.
Joking with the media and even breaking into good French, Ballmer
acknowledged that he's finding it hard to keep up with social
networking on the Facebook Web site.
"I do have a profile on Facebook," he said. "It's hard to keep up. I get many friend requests from people I don't know."
"There's about 10 Steve Ballmers and I'm only one of them. I'm the one
who actually has a picture that looks like me on it!" he said. "I'm
hitting a golf ball, that's the real Steve Ballmer."
He was in Belgium to open a Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) innovation
center in the southern city of Mons that hopes to boost new startups in
the country, creating some 200 jobs over the next three years.
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