Survey: most people know about Vista but few intend to upgrade
By John Pospisil
A recent Harris Poll has found that while most online computers users are aware of Microsoft’s Windows Vista, few are intending to switch over to the new operating system anytime soon.
The Harris Poll of 2223 US online adults in early March found that 87% were aware of Vista. Unfortunately for Microsoft, only 12% of Vista-aware respondents were intending to upgrade to Vista in the next 12 months.
The poll revealed that 39% of those intending to move over to Vista planned to upgrade their existing computer so it would meet Vista requirements, 35% planned to buy a new computer with Vista preinstalled, 17% planned to purchase a new “Vista-ready” computer, and 8% said that they would install Vista on their existing computer without any upgrade.
A similar Harris Poll in December 2006, just one month before Vista’s consumer launch, found that 47% of those online were aware of Vista, and that 20% intended to upgrade in the coming year.
It seems that while Microsoft’s “Wow Starts Now” marketing campaign has boosted awareness of Vista, it hasn’t substantially increased the total number of people planning to upgrade.
The survey does indicate, however, that the release of the new operating system has affected the timing of the purchase of a new computer for 40% of the respondents who were aware of Vista: one in five said they had delayed the purchase of a new computer, and one in five said they would bring forward the purchase of a new computer.
According to Milton Ellis, Vice President of Harris Interactive’s Technology Group, said Microsoft has some way to go to convert the awareness of Vista into sales.
“In order to generate that ‘WOW’ factor, Microsoft will have to put forth a value proposition that will move the majority to the upgrade category in the years ahead. Vista promised better performance, reliability, security, and a revolutionary user interface - but it appears consumers looking to upgrade are not ready to buy into the promise whereas new computer buyers will want the latest and greatest,” said Ellis.
“Microsoft has faced this challenge before with operating system upgrades. Consumers tend to wait until a few service packs have been released to fix real or perceived problems. No doubt, Microsoft understands these issues and will proceed accordingly.”
Related:
Entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
under 
Print This Post
Read more entries by John Pospisil.
Stumble It!
April 7th, 2007
I write this from a fairly decent machine with XP2 home media center.
I have always owned MS machines, but everything I have read so far about Vista makes me think that my next machine will be (shudder) a portable Mac, sorry Bill.
May 2nd, 2007
Hey, why “upgrade” to Vista? I upgraded to Ubuntu from XP. Now I can run desktop effects with a new, fresh look - and I don’t even need to buy a new computer to use it! You can give it a try without install: http://www.ubuntu.com/
June 15th, 2007
I did upgrade to Knoppix, Windows just was trying to tell me that it was time for me to buy a new Laptop, but one of those Linux guys did install it for free in my machine, know I am using KDE desktop and it is amazing and even faster. I could not imagine how good interface is and something that really impress me was the so vast of number of application you have for free out there, I can say if you needed to pay for all what you get must be thousands of dollars.
December 19th, 2007
vista is the worst OS i ever use!, rip off
October 14th, 2008
I recently put windows vista back on my computer, the first time I had windows vista on my computer it was incompatable with alot of my software, So I switched back to XP. This was a bad decision on my part, I just got done with a five page report for a college class on word perfect 10 and when I went to save it it froze my computer. On XP a week earlier I did not have a problem with this, so just as a warning windows Vista is not fixed. Dont upgrade until they do fix it. Dont pay more for a program that causes problems and does less!