I read this today and thought it was interesting. To bad none of these guys will Care.
Dear Jim and Bill and Steve:
I am writing in the hope I can convince you to make a significant change in the activation and licensing scheme for Windows XP (news - web sites), particularly the Home Edition. With the formal introduction still more than two weeks away, there's still time to make the necessary changes.
As you may know, over the past month, I've been answering readers' questions about Windows XP. I've received several thousand e-mails, postings, and other comments, so while I don't know all there is to know about the new OS, I'm at least on top of user reaction.
Here's what I've learned: A small change in the activation scheme can save you a lot of pain and heartache later on. And it will solve a real problem you've created by suddenly springing copy protection on your customers.
A BIT OF HISTORY: One reason Windows has become a standard is because of illegal copying. (The same can be said about Microsoft Office, but I'll stick with operating systems for this discussion.)
Customers were almost encouraged by Microsoft to purchase a single operating system upgrade disk and copy it to all their existing machines. This benefited Microsoft tremendously, by increasing the acceptance of its operating systems and helping users stay current. While Microsoft could have used some form of copy protection in the past, nothing was done until its desktop OS monopoly was absolutely secure.
While I understand there needs to be a limit to this casual copying--though Microsoft really hasn't made the case why--some allowance needs to be made, especially since XP marks the first time you have imposed copy protection on your operating systems.
HERE'S WHAT I want: Allow each upgrade copy of the Home Edition of Windows XP to be loaded (and activated) on up to three computers--five if you want to be generous.
Making this change will address the legitimate concerns of home users who can't afford to pay $85 to $100 per machine to upgrade. Yet, because it's the Home Edition, big-business customers won't take advantage. They would still upgrade to the Pro Edition (at least if you do a good enough job of convincing them) on a per-machine basis. Some small businesses would fall through the cracks, of course, using Home Edition in their offices.
Microsoft has already set a precedent for this action, when you extended the time for business customers to become "current" before having to pay extra for forthcoming upgrades of Microsoft operating systems, servers, and applications. Microsoft concluded, apparently, that surprising business customers with what amounted to a demand for large amounts of cash wasn't a nice thing to do, and relented at least a bit.
Surely, your home customers deserve the same consideration. Paying $80-$100 to upgrade the operating system on each of three or four home PCs really adds up fast. And people won't pay it.
MICROSOFT MAY or may not see upgrade revenues diminish because of this. Maybe people will be happy to just upgrade one machine and leave the others with whatever OS they are running today. But if AnchorDesk readers are any indication, many will not upgrade, and will "move" to Windows XP only when they eventually purchase a new computer with the new OS already installed.
Either way you have it, you lose. In the best case, upgrade revenues rise--but market penetration drops. In the worst, customers simply refuse to buy XP, and you are out of revenues as well. I am not sure what the outcome will be, though I am quite certain XP won't find its way onto as many older machines as previous upgrades. People just aren't going to buy that many copies.
One way to do this would be to make the extra "free" upgrades a limited-time offer, or perhaps Microsoft could promote this as your company's way of trying to revitalize the economy. Either works for me.
ONE LAST ISSUE I'd like to mention: The biggest selling point of XP is that it's stable. Didn't customers have a right to expect as much from your previous operating systems? Microsoft has never apologized for releasing buggy operating systems.
Perhaps now you should--in a manner of speaking. How? What about recalling your previous Windows releases and replacing them with XP--for free--the same way automobile companies fix their mistakes?
I know XP-for-free is not likely to get any traction at Microsoft, but I hope allowing consumers to upgrade to XP for a much more reasonable price is something you will act on.
XP is truly the operating system your customers need, and it's one they ought to be able to afford.
Kind regards,
David Coursey
Executive Editor
ZDNet AnchorDesk
Dear Jim and Bill and Steve:
I am writing in the hope I can convince you to make a significant change in the activation and licensing scheme for Windows XP (news - web sites), particularly the Home Edition. With the formal introduction still more than two weeks away, there's still time to make the necessary changes.
As you may know, over the past month, I've been answering readers' questions about Windows XP. I've received several thousand e-mails, postings, and other comments, so while I don't know all there is to know about the new OS, I'm at least on top of user reaction.
Here's what I've learned: A small change in the activation scheme can save you a lot of pain and heartache later on. And it will solve a real problem you've created by suddenly springing copy protection on your customers.
A BIT OF HISTORY: One reason Windows has become a standard is because of illegal copying. (The same can be said about Microsoft Office, but I'll stick with operating systems for this discussion.)
Customers were almost encouraged by Microsoft to purchase a single operating system upgrade disk and copy it to all their existing machines. This benefited Microsoft tremendously, by increasing the acceptance of its operating systems and helping users stay current. While Microsoft could have used some form of copy protection in the past, nothing was done until its desktop OS monopoly was absolutely secure.
While I understand there needs to be a limit to this casual copying--though Microsoft really hasn't made the case why--some allowance needs to be made, especially since XP marks the first time you have imposed copy protection on your operating systems.
HERE'S WHAT I want: Allow each upgrade copy of the Home Edition of Windows XP to be loaded (and activated) on up to three computers--five if you want to be generous.
Making this change will address the legitimate concerns of home users who can't afford to pay $85 to $100 per machine to upgrade. Yet, because it's the Home Edition, big-business customers won't take advantage. They would still upgrade to the Pro Edition (at least if you do a good enough job of convincing them) on a per-machine basis. Some small businesses would fall through the cracks, of course, using Home Edition in their offices.
Microsoft has already set a precedent for this action, when you extended the time for business customers to become "current" before having to pay extra for forthcoming upgrades of Microsoft operating systems, servers, and applications. Microsoft concluded, apparently, that surprising business customers with what amounted to a demand for large amounts of cash wasn't a nice thing to do, and relented at least a bit.
Surely, your home customers deserve the same consideration. Paying $80-$100 to upgrade the operating system on each of three or four home PCs really adds up fast. And people won't pay it.
MICROSOFT MAY or may not see upgrade revenues diminish because of this. Maybe people will be happy to just upgrade one machine and leave the others with whatever OS they are running today. But if AnchorDesk readers are any indication, many will not upgrade, and will "move" to Windows XP only when they eventually purchase a new computer with the new OS already installed.
Either way you have it, you lose. In the best case, upgrade revenues rise--but market penetration drops. In the worst, customers simply refuse to buy XP, and you are out of revenues as well. I am not sure what the outcome will be, though I am quite certain XP won't find its way onto as many older machines as previous upgrades. People just aren't going to buy that many copies.
One way to do this would be to make the extra "free" upgrades a limited-time offer, or perhaps Microsoft could promote this as your company's way of trying to revitalize the economy. Either works for me.
ONE LAST ISSUE I'd like to mention: The biggest selling point of XP is that it's stable. Didn't customers have a right to expect as much from your previous operating systems? Microsoft has never apologized for releasing buggy operating systems.
Perhaps now you should--in a manner of speaking. How? What about recalling your previous Windows releases and replacing them with XP--for free--the same way automobile companies fix their mistakes?
I know XP-for-free is not likely to get any traction at Microsoft, but I hope allowing consumers to upgrade to XP for a much more reasonable price is something you will act on.
XP is truly the operating system your customers need, and it's one they ought to be able to afford.
Kind regards,
David Coursey
Executive Editor
ZDNet AnchorDesk
