Are there any really good reasons for consumers to jump at yet another version of Windows XP?According to reports late last week, Microsoft's considering releasing an updated version of Windows XP before any sign of what's currently known as Longhorn sees the light of day on retail shelves. 'Windows XP Reloaded' may apparently follow the mostly bug and security-fixing Windows XP Service Pack 2 release that should drop before the middle of the year. If it's true, it's an interesting move on Microsoft's part, for all sorts of reasons. As far as I can see, however, unless Microsoft's got something very tricky under its sleeves, most of the reasons are bad ones.
From a business standpoint, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Most enterprises sit back and take the long view of Windows releases -- I wouldn't expect too many businesses to be jumping all over service pack 2 until they're quite sure that it won't cause as many problems as it fixes on their own internal images. That's probably a timeline that sees adoption around the end of this year, if not next year. Taking the long view, and bearing in mind the expected life cycle of most PCs, if you were a business, you're more likely to be concentrating on what Microsoft's saying about Longhorn as a future OS rather than fuddling around with interim versions of an operating system that you may have only just settled into in any case.
If we presume that most businesses are unlikely to jump at a new Windows XP, that leaves Microsoft chasing the consumer dollar. That ties in pretty closely with what Microsoft has said, which is mostly to quell the idea that this might be an actual interim product. The official-speak version of what's happening is that they're "exploring ways to add value to Windows XP".
What exactly does "adding value" mean? And how much should consumers expect to pay for it? They're of course questions that Microsoft's not exactly going out of its way to answer -- and to be fair, at this stage, if they're just exploring options, it could all come to no solid products at the end of the day.
Taking a punt at it, and bearing the likely consumer market in mind, you'd have to think that Microsoft's likely to take a page out of Apple's book -- not that it's ever done that before -- and look to an iLife style set of upgrades. XP already has a lot of tools that perform essentially the same tasks as much of iLife -- audio and video editing, picture management and so on -- but without a lot of iLife's smooth operation and OS integration. There's also a lot of software out there for the Windows platform that replicates this kind of operation in an easier to comprehend fashion that XP's own built-in utilities.
That represents both an opportunity for an independent software developer -- the 'get bought out by big Bill' scenario -- and a huge challenge for every other developer out there who doesn't get the shiny gold sovereign in return for their code. I don't see too many software vendors rushing to release competing applications to the iLife suite, and that's for a very simple reason. If consumers get the product essentially within the software box, why spend lots of money on a third-party solution?
The danger there is the monopoly question. That's probably still a dirty word around Redmond, but it's something that'd inevitably tie in to any added enhancement pack's chance of succeeding. There's no point in offering an upgrade for a hundred bucks if it'll cost you millions in lawyer's fees when the DOJ and EU come knocking, after all.
Still, an enhancement pack would have to be the better bet for Microsoft than an interim release of Windows XP. Aside from muddying the waters when it comes to Longhorn, there's the fact that the last time Microsoft went chasing the consumer dollar, it ended up in a product that still makes me shudder -- Windows Me. If anyone from Microsoft's listening, we don't need Windows Me 2.
What do you think? Would you buy an 'interim' Windows XP, or an 'enhancement' version? What new features does Windows really need, anyway? Talkback to me below!
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We really don't need it. I've just finished getting rid of all my win 98 machines in the office and on Family and friends PC's. Most home users don't even understand what all the new gadgets are and are busy tring to figure out where all their familiar software moved to and why is stuff rearranged. I do believe the imporvments from 98 to XP are worth the investment, but unless there is some great new stablilty built into the interum version I will wait like most americans and make a jump. I would normally skip an OS or take the next versoin with the purchase of a new system.