HP: fending for itself

“By popular request”, HP says that it will continue to fit Windows 7 to its computers. This will be bad news for Microsoft: Windows 8 is clearly not having the impact it hoped for. For many, the major changes introduced to Windows 8 are seen not so much as an incentive to change, but as a major problem that is best avoided, to the extent that the company itself has, for example, had to revived familiar elements such as the start button.

In the 17 months since it was launched, barely 5% of contributors to my Spanish-language site do so using Windows 8, compared to around 30% who use Windows 7. It seems pretty clear that there have been cases of people who have decided to delay buying a computer to avoid having to switch to Windows 8, in the same way that there have been people who have gone out of their way to find machines fitted with Windows 7.

Sadly, sometimes a company tries to change too many things at once, only to discover that a significant proportion of its customers liked things the way they were. There would seem to be an element of this here: customers who disagree with the changes, and that a single interface throughout a range of products makes no sense, especially when not using a touch screen, etc.

At the same time, let’s not overlook other realities: the first being that this development is taking place in a PC market that is going through a crisis of epic proportions, and in the context of an HP that has probably just about hit rock bottom after several years of chaotic management. Furthermore, Microsoft’s usual policy allows it to sell old systems for a period of time, which in the case of Windows 7, means until October. Basically, whichever way you look at it, HP is selling a great many more models with Windows 8 rather than Windows 7… laptops and desktops combined, there are 68 models with Windows 8, compared to five with Windows 7.

The fact of the matter is that HP has only reduced the number of Windows 7 models from the eight that it had in August of last year to the current five, and at no time has taken a decision along the lines of “and now we’re back with…” Instead, it has simply announced an offer that already existed. Seen in this light, the “by popular demand” claim needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

Where does this leave us? In a PC market in freefall, HP is desperate to sell as many computers as it can, and in its desperation is leaving no niche unexplored, including that of people who want to continue with an interface they know rather than changing to a new one. Okay, Windows 8 was a disappointment, the interface changes could have been a trifle sudden and not to everybody’s taste, and the company is not enjoying its best moment at a time when it faces powerful competitors and a fast-changing operating environment. But to make the leap to “customers are turning away from Windows 8 to Windows 7 is stretching things a little too far.

In reality, HP’s announcement is not so much a reflection of Microsoft’s crisis, although there is something of that, and is perhaps more a case of HP fending for itself.

(En español, aquí)