Windows 8 has been greeted with mixed opinions by many people, some hate the new Metro UI, other’s love it. But there’s also a lot of people who are starting to be won over slowly but surely (Our very own Mike Halsey for one). Dell along with the other OEM’s have certainly recognised the potential that Windows 8 holds, and I feel that it will do particularly well on tablets when consumers mess around with the Metro UI.

Dell also reckon that Windows 8 powered tablets will have the edge over competitors like the iPad because they will support the likes of Microsoft Office as well as the ability to connect to secure corporate networks. All while retaining full Windows functionality that they are all familiar with.

Dell’s CEO Michael Dell was speaking with Bloomberg about how there is growing demand for a tablet that runs Windows to compete with the iPad. He said that they are hard at work developing business friendly tablets that will go on sale the “exact same day” that Windows 8 will hit the market. (Unfortunately he was careful enough not to let a release date slip, then again he probably knows as much as us)

Apple have certainly been making ground into the business sector with the iPad over recent years and this is normally where Microsoft excels. Luckily for them there was no new stand out feature in the latest iPad so it gives Microsoft a chance to finally fight back and get some proper tablets on the market to compete with Apple.

Dell are looking to “lead the market” with Windows 8 powered tablets. It’s certainly going to be a tough battle, and Dell will have to come out with some seriously good devices, but it is possible.

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Two big pieces of news have emerged about Windows Phone this weekend.  The first of which is that the Windows Phone Marketplace has reached 40,000 apps, which is a big improvement on over 35,000 apps just one months ago and 30,000 back in August.  The reports say that 165 new apps are being added every day of which about 15% are games and 68% a free.

This still leaves Windows Phone massively behind the iPhone, which has admittedly had a considerable head start, with half a million apps available and the Android store with 300,000 available.  The research is keen to point out though that at the end of its first year the Android store had only 20,000 apps available.

At the time of writing, 40,189 items have been published. Of these, 10,882 were added in the last 90 days and 4,770 were added in the last 30 days. These items come from 10,731 different publishers.

In the study, done by allaboutwindowsphone, it is predicted that the app store will hit 50,000 apps in the middle or January 2012.  They also detail the types of apps that are being written for the platform.  Of the largest books and reference take the joint top spot with games, both on 15% with tools and productivity in second place with 14% and entertainment following up with 13% in third place.

In other news it has emerged that computing giant Dell has replaced 15,000 staff Blackberry handsets with Windows Phones which is about 50% of the total number of phones within the company.  If you want to ask which Windows Phone the company has adopted you’ll be unsurprised to hear they’ve opted for their own Venue Pro handset which was launched last year.

RIM have referred to the move away from Blackberrys at Dell a “Publicity stunt” implying that Dell were only doing this to help advertise their own smartphone, the only one made by the company so far.

The Venue Pro is indeed an intriguing Windows Phone with a slide-down keyboard and is currently the only Windows Phone of its type, with the HTC 7 Pro having a keyboard that slides out sideways and is hampered by too many user interface pages in Windows Phone that refuse to rotate.

Does this mean that Windows Phone is winning or that it’s just doing less badly than it was before?  In truth the news that major corporations such as Dell, which obviously has a price advantage using its own handset, trust the new enterprise features and improvements that have come with the recent Mango update, something I have written an article for Microsoft UK about that will be published this week.

The acid test will be if any other companies indicate that they’re interested in following suit.  Microsoft has caused considerable harm to its smartphone reputation by effectively shunning companies that were loyal to their old and ageing Windows Mobile platform.  This platform might have been awful to use but systems administrators loved it’s integration with Exchange server, the ability to use group policy controls and the remote management that the platform offered.  Windows Phone still has almost none of these, nor does it have direct sync with Outlook for small to medium-sized businesses who may have been using Windows Mobile for years with pop accounts rather than Microsoft’s Exchange system.

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I’ve reviewed a few desktop replacement laptops in the last few months that span the entire gamut of price, performance and build quality.  Desktop replacements can be extremely useful, especially for IT Pros or people who are just unwilling to banish the trusty old desktop PC from their living room, but know that sooner or later it just has to go.

Let’s begin by discussing the benefits of a desktop replacement laptop.  These machines simply aren’t about being big and powerful any more.  Sure they come with full HD screen sizes of 17 inches and upwards and new Core-i7 processors that are a match for anything found in a modern desktop.  Both of these are relatively new innovations and they make the desktop replacement truly compelling for the first time.  Having used some though I quickly came to realise that there’s so much more to it than that.  Storage is critical and all the machines I’m going to talk about here come with dual hard disks; with one even having space for a solid state mini card as well.

Then there is build quality.  If you are going to spend workstation money on a laptop you want to guarantee that it will take a few bumps and scrapes.  You want to be able to drop it, or in my case stick it under a running tap accidentally (don’t ask, it still worked thankfully) and know that you can carry on working.

Finally there’s security and you want to feel reassured that your data will be safe and secure from prying eyes and thieves.  So which of the three main contenders for this prize do I believe will come out top?

The Samsung RF711 is our first contender and it’s by far the budget model of the three costing only around $1,000.  When you compare this to a desktop what you’re getting seems quite incredible value for money.  A 2GHz Core-i7 processor and 6Gb of DDR3 ram backed up with an nVidia GeForce GT540M graphics chip with it’s own 1Gb of memory.  It’s a very pretty machine too, though in fairness all the laptops in this review are head-turners.  What is lacks however is all that you need for security peace of mind.  There’s no TPM chip, no fingerprint reader and no smartcard reader.  Finally the budget for this machine stops at a 1600 by 900 not-quite HD screen.

Moving up to the Acer 8951G at around $1,400 does give you a fingerprint reader but still no TPM but you do get a full HD 1920 by 1080 screen, a slightly faster Core-i7 processor running at 2.2GHz and more ram at 8Gb.  There’s an nVidia GT555M graphics chip with 2Gb of dedicated memory and the biggest screen I’ve ever seen on a laptop at 18.4 inches.  Style is also the order of the day here with the extra $400 buying you a brushed metal case, upped from the plastic of the Samsung.

Finally, and really at the very top of the tree stands the hefty Dell Precision M6600 workstation which those of you who read my reviews regularly will know is actually my own machine.  This is a monster with a 2.5GHz Core-i7 processor, 8Gb of ram and an nVidia Optimus 4000M graphics with 2Gb of GDDR5 dedicated memory, up from the DDR3 of the other machines.  It’s configurable to an almost comical degree too with mine sporting a TPM chip, fingerprint reader, contactless smartcard reader, GPS, SIM card slot for mobile broadband and a four-point multi-touch screen.  The metal case is completely bomb proof with the most solid construction I’ve ever seen on a laptop.  All this comes at a hefty price though of around $4,000.

All three of these machines are very well equipped and all come with Blu-Ray, USB3 and huge numbers of ports.  This isn’t the only place where they’re similar too.  Battery life on all three is remarkably similar as is performance.  It really is difficult to tell these three machines apart in day to day use to see which is faster.

This ultimately becomes the crux of the argument over which is best.  The Dell has all the security features and the rock-solid build quality that any any IT Pro would ever need.  The price premium for all this over the other two though just doesn’t make it worth all the extra cash.  The addition of the fingerprint reader, which is fairly useless without a TPM chip in my opinion and the brushed metal not really adding anything to overall rugedness also rules the Acer out of the running.  It’s just not good enough to pip the Samsung to the post.

Having used all three and realised there’s actually very little, if anything at all, in it in terms of performance differences it just has to be the Samsung that wins.  Desktop replacement power, twin hard disks and powerful graphics coming in at under $1,000 is just too good not to win.  My recommendation if you’re looking for a desktop replacement laptop is certainly the Samsung RF711, and you can use the $3,000 you save to pay for a decent case, a good insurance policy and a foreign holiday.

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As tablets look set to be taking over the world one tablet at a time, HP and Dell are preparing to enter this hostile environment for themselves with Windows 8 tablets. The fierce competition between Android tablets and the iPad has shown that there is a real market for tablets. The recent announcement of the cut price Kindle Fire is only going to cause an inferno in the tablet wars (excuse the terrible pun).

HP and Dell are way behind when it comes to the tablet wars, and while both companies have had a crack at trying to get a foothold in this market, neither of these huge PC makers seem to be able to break in. Now however, with Windows 8 in the pipeline and shipping ready for tablets, that could all change. At Dell World las week, Dell CEO Michael Dell said that the Android opportunity hasn’t quite developed to expectations, but the wide range of Windows 8 tablets that they have planned should see them finally getting off the ground.

The new Windows 8 Metro UI is perfectly suited for tablets and while Microsoft have claimed that they are not trying to get rid of the traditional desktop interface, they are certainly distancing themselves from it.

The chances are that Dell will focus their tablets more at the business end of things, while HP will be looking to target the general consumer more so. According to reports from Digitimes, HP and Dell are expected to launch their tablets in the third quarter of 2012, which is also expected to be the release date for Windows 8.

I think that the success on these new Windows 8 tablets will depend critically on timing. Dell and HP need to make sure that their tablets will be ready to go the second that Windows 8 is released to the general public. They need to jump on the bandwagon and ride along the hype that will be surrounding Windows 8 and make sure that they’re in there for the holiday season, and at a reasonable price.

The future of Windows 8 based tablets remains to be seen, but if manufacturers like Dell and HP do this properly, they could be a huge success.

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I’ve had the pleasure this year of reviewing some of the world’s most powerful portable computers, including the ASUS EP121 tablet, but this week I took delivery of a Dell Precision M6600 Advanced Workstation laptop.  This machine is one of the most powerful portable computers on the planet with only Sony and Lenovo offering specifications to match it.

The machine that has arrived for me has a 2.5GHz Core i7 Sandybridge processor, backed up with 8Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3 RAM.  This is the most powerful mobile processor Dell currently offer though the RAM can be increased to 16Gb of 1,600MHz DDR3 or even a massive 32Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3 if you wish.  The hard drives, because you can have up to three, in mine are both 7,200RPM models, one with 250Gb and one with 750Gb.  Dell offer options up to 256Gb SSDs and the third hard disk is a tiny mini-disc option just millimetres thick and the size of a match box.

The screen is a 17.3 inch four point multi-touch affair that matches the full Adobe colour gamut and runs at a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080.  This runs on graphics that are switchable between the internal Intel chipset and a powerful nVidia Optimus 4000M processor with 2Gb of GDDR5 RAM.  Internally there’s 802.11 b/g/n wireless (WiMAX is an optional extra), 3G, Bluetooth 3 and GPS.  The machine is backed up, very sensibly for something of this power with a TPM chip and a fingerprint reader.  There are a very generous selection of ports too including 2x USB2, Firewire, seperate headphone and microphone sockets, an ExpressCard slot, an eSATA/USB2 combo socket, SD card slot, full HDMI, VGA, Gigabit ethernet, display port and 2x USB3.  Last but by no means least there’s an excellent webcam built into the screen bezel.

The options on the Dell website for this machine are simply staggering.  You can pick up an M6600 for $1,600 (£1,280) but specify it up to around £5,000.  The machine sent to me costs around £3,500.

This is an enormous amount of money to spend on a laptop but you won’t be lugging this to work and back every day.  For starters it weighs around 4.5Kg but the lid and body are finished in a lovely bronze aluminium that you’ll really want to take good care of.

It’s very upgradeable too, which will come as a relief to anyone who wants to buy one.  Just removing two screws allows the entire bottom of the case to come away.  Underneath there’s quick and easy access to the memory, hard disks, module cards and more.  It’s a very neat and elegant solution.

Battery life is reasonable at around five hours in light use, though you’ll be lucky to get two hours out of the battery when running at full power.  The power supply is weighty too and quite a large slab itself.

But what is the M6600 like to use?  The keyboard is excellent, one of the best I’ve used on a laptop.  There’s the option of backlighting which I have on mine and it makes working much easier and is controllable through several settings.  There’s no scrabble tile keyboard, Dell have instead opted for a more traditional approach but the tops of the keys are wide and well spaced.  The Enter key is a very generous size and, although the left shift key is a little narrow, it’s excellent in general use.  The cursor keys are sensibly placed and the number pad has full size keys too.  Finally there are keys for the calculator and media playback and volume and mute controls above the keyboard.

Below the keyboard is a trackpad that also acts as a digitizer tablet and that comes with a powered stylus that has it’s own controls too.  There is also a nipple control and a second set of mouse buttons if you prefer.  The trackpad can also be turned off if you desire.

The screen is a little reflective but is extremely bright and good in strong light.  The build quality of the laptop too is extremely solid and the machine has an accelerometer that works in conjunction with a motion sensor to lock the hard disks in the event it is dropped.

Performance is excellent with a responsiveness that’s every bit as good as a desktop Core-i7 processor.  You can easily edit high-definition video on this machine.  This is partly the target market though and Dell say the machine is very useful for CAD designers, engineers and people where sheer grunt is every bit as important as portability.  The laptop is ISV certified for these tasks.

The Dell M6600 is an absolute beast of a machine that will comfortably cope with any task you can throw at it.  It’s quiet too in general use with only a very faint whirr from the fans.  It can get hot though, but you’re unlikely to have something this heavy on your lap.  Optional extras include a dock that can connect the M6600 to up to five displays simultaneously via DisplayPort.

There’s really not much to say about this laptop other than state facts and figures about how powerful it is and what it can do.  If you’re in the market for beast and have a budget to match it, I simply don’t believe you’ll find anything better.  I compared the competition from Sony and Lenovo and while they might match the physical power and storage, they can’t touch the Dell for style.  This laptop is a glory to behold and anyone who buys one will never regret their purchase.

To summarise the Dell M6600 excels at everything it does, which is nothing more than you’d expect for the price.  While there are alternatives, I don’t believe any of them are up to this standard.  Sure there are a few niggles but no real faults and so few in fact that I can safely award the Dell M6600 the full 10 out of 10 for quality, power and features.

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Dell recently revealed a completely new Windows 7 tablet that’s aimed straight at businesses. The 10-inch tablet hasn’t had any more details or specifications released, just a mere teaser from Dell. But it would look like someone at Dell forget to stick a password on their computer as a full release schedule for the company’s tablets and smartphones has somehow found its way onto the web overnight.

According to this “leaked” release schedule, the Windows 7 tablet could be in the hands of consumers as soon as mid-May with a follow up device to be launched in January 2012 running Windows 8.

The leak comes courtesy of Android Central who say they got the plans from a reliable tipster.

The plans include information on a handful of Android devices as well as four tablets.

The main Windows 7 tablet we’re looking at here is “Rosemount” which is the 10-inch wooden mock up we saw last week that I mentioned earlier. That tablet looks set to arrive in mid-May with a second tablet called “Peju”  set to be revealed in January running “Windows 8″

Now this could just be pure speculation by Dell as Microsoft have made no announcements to date on any release date or features that will be in Windows 8. All they’ve told us is that Windows 8 will support ARM architecture so the OS could run on a wider range of devices.

I really wish big companies like Dell would hurry up and get into the tablet market, Apple have had it all to themselves for nearly a year and only recently have we started to see some viable competitors enter it.

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A leaked Dell roadmap obtained by Android Central shows that the company plans to have a Windows 8 tablet ready for the first quarter of 2012.  The tablet, codenamed Peju has been pencilled in for the first three months of next year.  This is a good six months before the expected launch of Microsoft’s next desktop operating system.

It’s likely at this stage that Dell plan to unveil the tablet at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show in January and that this isn’t a schedule for the tablet actually going on sale.  It’s the first hint we’ve had though about Windows 8 tablets.

Last month Microsoft announced that their next generation operating system would run on ARM processors who power the vast majority or smartphones and many tablets.  These low-power, low cost processors are perfect for these types of devices.

All this has come about because computing power has reached a level where these low-power components can power a device through 90% of the everyday tasks users will want to do.

It is still possible at this stage that the ARM release of Windows 8 will come ahead of its desktop equivalent, though this is unlikely.  It will be interesting to see what Microsoft have planned however and this is confirmation that Microsoft are finally taking the tablet market seriously.

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At an event it dubbed “Dell Means Business,” PC maker Dell revealed a complete refresh of its business PC lineup this morning. Included in the refresh are new Latitude laptops, Optiplex desktops, Precision workstations, and a 10-inch Intel-powered Windows 7 tablet.

Most of the desktops and laptops, which will be available to buy in the next month or two, are fairly straightforward revisions of existing products – the Latitude E5420 and E5520 are 14-inch and 15-inch laptops that replace the previous low-end Latitude models, the E5410 and E5510. The E6220, E6320, E6420, and E6520 laptops are higher-end offerings, coming in screen sizes from 12″ to 15″, and if history is any indicator, will feature better construction than the E5000-series in lighter form factors. Rounding out the laptop lineup are the high-end Precision M4600 and M6600 workstations, which will offer high-end processors and GPUs with high-end price tags to match. On the desktop side of things, we’ve got Optiplex 990, 790, and 390 desktops, an all-in-one Optiplex desktop, and the Precision T1600 workstation.

The new computers will all use the new second-generation Core i-series processors from Intel, and according to Dell their availability should not be impacted by the chipset issues Intel disclosed at the end of last month.

The one product Dell mentioned that wasn’t a refresh of an existing product, the Windows 7 tablet, was basically a no-show. The “tablet” was shown off for half a minute, and – get this – it was a non-functional dummy unit. If the finished product looks anything like the mock-up, the Windows 7 tablet will be a cousin to Dell’s Android tablet, the Streak. Especially after this year’s tablet-crazy CES, it’s more than a little concerning that all Dell has to show is a plastic case – the finished product is due to arrive sometime this summer, which will give the iPad and a few dozen Android tablets plenty of time to rack up sales.

My thoughts on Windows 7-powered tablets are a matter of public record (see here, here, and here), but aside from this I think the new product lineup looks like a solid evolution of Dell’s robust business desktops and laptops.

Source: CNET

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Back in February, Dell acquired Kace who currently have 2,300 customers and more than 1.2 million machines under management. They specialise in helping medium size businesses to migrate to new OS’s and software updates. On friday Dell Kace is set to release it’s latest version of Kace K2000 Deployment Alliance, its Windows 7 deployment and Windows XP migration product.

This latest update makes the whole migration process for medium size businesses to Windows 7 much easier. The latest version of Kace will feature policy-based migration, offline migration, and continuous driver feed updates.

K2000 addresses many of the pains associated with migrating to Windows 7. It’s designed to determine the hardware and driver compatibility and backs up and transfers the end-user data. For IT managers, it’s integrated with Kace K1000 management appliance which was enhanced in May and is due an update soon.

And the price tag for this migration service? It starts at $4,500 for the first 100 nodes, or $39,000 per appliance, so it’s by no means cheap.

According to a new survey Dell carried out, 71 percent of IT professionals said they were planning on migrating their organisation to Windows 7 by 2011, and 38 percent of them have already started. Of course by simplifying this process, Dell are hoping this will speed up the process and draw more interest.

Microsoft is seeing the fastest adoption of any OS in their history. It’s already managed to achieve over 25 percent of the market just over a year after its launch, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. In comparison, Vista barely got above 20 percent of the market since its release.

So more and more companies and businesses are providing solutions for people to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7. It appears to be working and with the deadline of 2014 looming for the end of Windows XP support, companies are eager to begin the usual 12-18 month process of migrating.

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Dell announced today via a blog post that it would be phasing out Windows XP on its new computers this month, ahead of Microsoft’s October 22 deadline. The company suggested that customers still needing to run Windows XP applications do so using Windows 7′s XP Mode feature.

Microsoft reminded customers in June that Windows XP would not be offered as a preinstalled OS after October 22, though customers still have the right to manually downgrade to Windows XP throughout the new OS’s lifecycle. This loophole primarily benefits businesses without Microsoft volume licenses who are still unready to leave Windows XP.

Of course, these downgrade rights are only useful if the new machines are properly supported with drivers – many consumer laptops have gone without official XP drivers since Windows Vista’s release in 2006. Dell assured customers that it would continue to offer driver support for XP through 2012. From the blog post:

Per Microsoft guidelines regarding Windows XP, system vendors like Dell will no longer be able to ship systems with XP Professional and XP Home after October 22, 2010. This means that we will stop offering XP as an option for customers starting this month in preparation for next month’s deadline. One other important thing to note is that Dell plans to continue Windows XP driver support until December 2012.

After the October 22 date, qualified customers will still be able to get systems with Windows XP … through Dell’s Custom Factory Integration service. Otherwise, customers who order new machines with Windows 7 Professional or higher can run XP applications in Windows XP Mode.

This move probably makes the most sense for Dell from a business perspective – Windows XP support is beginning to dry up rapidly. Microsoft’s Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 applications will be available for Windows Vista and Windows 7 only, as will the upcoming Internet Explorer 9. Most third-party software vendors are predicted to drop support for Windows XP well before 2014, when Microsoft plans to stop releasing security updates for the OS.

What do you think of Dell’s decision? Are you sad to see XP go, or is it good riddance for the aging OS? Let us know in the comments!

Sources: Dell

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According to research by IDC, the global PC market grew by 22.4% in the second quarter of 2010.  This is good news for the global economy and explains the strong sales figures that Microsoft have been reporting for WIndows 7.

In their report they said…

Despite rising worries over sovereign debt and the pace of economic recovery, the global PC market grew 22.4% in the second quarter of 2010 (2Q10), in-line with forecasted growth of 22.9%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. The market in EMEA remained remarkably strong – benefiting from some recovery as well as commercial replacements – while growth in the United States and Asia/Pacific was slightly behind projections.

“The PC market remains robust, and in a recovery phase, despite challenges to a broader economic recovery, such as slow job growth and a more conservative outlook in Europe and Asia/Pacific,” said Jay Chou, research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. “The factors which led to the recent PC rebound – an aging commercial installed base, a proliferation of low-cost media-centric PCs, and low PC penetration through much of the world – remain key drivers going forward.”

They said that in the US the market grew 12.6% from the previous year, although a much-hoped increase of between 18% and 25% did not materialise.  The Asia/pacific region however grew by a substantial 35% compared to the year before, which could be explained by the continued economic boom in China, which did not suffer in the global economic downturn.

HP performed best with 14.2% growth in the US and 11% elsewhere, Dell followed closely behind in the number of shipments and grew a whole 19% on the previous year.  Lenovo and Toshiba both saw excellent growth figures for their laptops with 47% and 26% increases respectively.

You can read the full report here.

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Steve Guggenheimer, Microsoft’s OEM Vice-President has not pulled his punches this week when talking about Google’s Android operating system.  In an interview with the Wall St Journal, he openly dismissed Android’s adoption by companies such as Acer and Dell as “a stage of experimentation”, adding that he expects "Microsoft’s support for Windows 7 will be seen as more valuable over time."

To back this up he pointed to the netbook market which started as being almost exclusively Linux installations.  "three years later it is 95% on Windows" he says.  He’s got a point but Android is gaining ground, especially in mobile phones and tablets, two markets that Microsoft have a huge stake in and with new products coming soon.

Especially with the launch later this year of Windows Phone 7 he has to sound confident to please the share-holders, doubly so given last week’s announcement that Apple is officially now worth more than the Redmond giant.

So Guggenheimer’s statement should come as no surprise to anyone as a rallying call, especially to OEM partners, including Acer and Dell, that Microsoft have no intention of resting on their laurels.

The fact remains though that, even in the smart phone market, Android is pushing hard against iPhone OS and it will probably be the second biggest smart phone operating system by the year’s end.  That’s some tough competition, so we can expect a summer of lots more very tough talking from Microsoft.

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Yesterday Apple finally launched its much hyped iPad to the world, presumably avoiding the rumoured name iSlate after realising how much of gift it would have been to journalists.  Apple products do tend to create a huge amount of anticipation and good will but on this occasion it’s, if you read around the internet, a case of OOH! OOH! OOH! oh!

So why will the iPad fail and what’s this rubbish I’m pedalling about it helping sales of Windows 7?  This is simple.  Quite simply this time Apple have got it wrong.  All the tech press is saying the same thing and comments made by readers of those websites are echoing, mostly anyway, their sentiments.

The iPad is nothing more than a large iPod Touch.  It’s lacking a 16:9 screen and while the bezel has to be of a reasonable size to allow for holding the device with your hand without your thumb poking the screen all the time, it’s simply too big.  Finally those few people who’ve already used it are saying that having a standard keyboard on a device that you can’t rest easily on your lap and that is intended to be used one-handed is lunacy.  Just look at the curved corner keyboards Microsoft introduced with the tablet editions of Windows to see how they should have done it.

If all of this isn’t enough to cause the iPad to fail then the price will certainly put everybody else off.  With a starting price tag of $500 it’s simply too expensive, twice the price of a better specification netbook and the same price as significantly better laptops.  At this price it’s unique selling points of multi-touch and… erm… whatever the others are, are simply not enough to win hearts and minds.

However…

For one reason or another, and I have no idea why this turned out to be such a coincidence, certain other companies such as MSI and Dell chose today to release details of their own forthcoming tablet devices, and both look gorgeous, especially the Dell (pictured).

These devices are similarly specified to the iPad and run everything from Windows 7 to Google Android, but the big difference will be in the price.  They will all undercut Apple considerably and provide tablets for the price of a netbook, the price they should be.

This is excellent news FOR Windows 7.  Firstly this new type of device, obviously based on something that’s been around since 2002 but we’ll skip lightly over that one, is a very interesting form-factor that, now popularised will enable just about everybody to produce a clone tablet.

This will help sales of Windows 7 because of its multi-touch facilities and, in turn, should tempt a very many XP and Vista laptop owners to upgrade to a tablet.  Let’s face it there are thousands of people who, if a device such as this had been available five years ago, would never have bought a full laptop.

The knock-on repercussions for all this will be enormous.  It will help people move away from the troublesome Internet Explorer 6, help boost the hardware industries of the world as we move out of recession.  It’ll create jobs and wealth and so much more.

All this will have come about because Apple have done the R&D and released a product that’s been instantly derided as ugly and not what people want.  If I were Steve Ballmer today, I’d be splashing out on an extra skiing holiday.

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Taiwan’s Acer, the worlds #2 pc maker has announced that it is expecting that it’s PC sales will improve for the 4th quarter due to the release of Windows 7. While the gains were within expectations, the company expects that its 4th quarter growth will improve 25% over the same period a year ago.

Acer’s expectations for the upcoming year are a growth of 15%.  Globally it is expecting a growth rate of 50% by the end of 2010.

Overall, according to Giofranco Lansi, CEO, Windows 7 has been a positive spur “When we saw the features of Windows 7, we already knew that it would be good for demand. We have no plans to revise.”

Windows-7-display

This outlook corresponds what other PC makers have reported. Lenovo is expecting sales to rise.  Dell reported that it’s PC sales were up due to Windows 7, and Windows 7 was outperforming Vista sales by a whopping 234% over the same period. It’s been reported that windows 7 has outperformed sales of Mac OS.

Demand Rebounds Post Win 7 Launch

Nevertheless, Windows7 sales, while being a boost, and clearly outperforming Vista, did not help PC makers on the whole like Vista did 2 years ago.

Some of the results are in. Unit sales when Vista launched over two years ago were up by 68%, compared to only 49% for Windows7. A big part of this is due to the fact that Vista demanded hardware upgrades, whereas Windows7 did not, at least not if you already had Vista installed.

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A senior executive from Dell says that the release of Windows 7 has seen increased demand for PCs from Small to Medium Sized businesses. Prior to the release of Windows 7, they witnessed a slow down in PC sales as customers put off buying a new PC, which helps explain why Dell’s third quarter revenue was lower than expected.

With the October 22nd release of Windows 7, PC sales surged in the company.

“At the beginning of October, we saw demand decline as customers put off their decision to buy, to wait for Windows 7 to fully launch. As soon as Oct. 22 hit, both our consumer business and our SMB business had a very healthy increase in demand

Said Steve Felice, president of Dell’s business unit that’s focused on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

Prior to the launch of Windows 7, Dell’s PC sales were running at only 80% of the company’s expectations. However once Windows 7 was released, they witnessed a surge in PC sales up to 110%, thanks to the new operating system. And in case your thinking this was just a once off peak in sales, your wrong. This trend seems to be continuing into November as well.

We didn’t just see that increase in the last 10 days of October, we’ve now seen three weeks of November where that demand has been pretty consistently up

Dell rely’s more on large businesses and SMB’s to make up it’s sales figures more than consumers. The likes of Hewlett Packard and Acer rely more on the consumer market. They claim that their low point was the second quarter of this year,

We’re not surprised to see the recovery at Dell come a little later than others might have reported

and from now on you shall see a rise in revenue as the company recovers, so far they are on track.

“That’s exactly what we’re seeing and I think you’ll see continued strength in Q4

So it seems all those fears of Windows 7 breaking backwards compatibility and leaving behind the beloved XP, haven’t stopped businesses from updating their machines. It’s great to see that businesses are readily adopting Windows 7, as prior to release their were speculations that not many businesses would make the switch. I guess XP mode as well as Windows 7 itself has managed to sway companies over.

This news also comes after Steve Ballmer announced that Windows 7 was selling much better than Vista

If you work for a company/business, have they made the switch to Windows 7 yet? If not what OS are you using? Let us know in the comments.

Source:

PCWorld

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Having laid out many of the reasons why Windows 7 makes for a good HTPC, I’ll run you through a few good computers that you can buy if you’re looking to nestle something under your TV set. Better late than never, they say!

The Dell Studio Hybrid

Dell Studio Hybrid

If you’re looking to buy something pre-built, the Dell Studio Hybrid is one of your best options, especially when it comes to selection of ports. It’s got HDMI and DVI outs, as well as optical audio out. The Studio Hybrid also packs full-strength Intel Pentium Dual-Core and Core 2 Duo processors, meaning it’s going to have no trouble with Flash or high-definition video – a Blu Ray drive option will help you put the computer through its paces.

Not all is rosy with the Dell Studio Hybrid – its hardware appears to be about a generation out of date (it uses the Intel X3100 graphics processor instead of the newer 4500 series or something from nVidia), and (strangely) it is still being offered with Windows Vista instead of Windows 7. This says to me that it is either due for a refresh or due to be discontinued – I hope it’s the former and not the latter, because this is a great niche computer that could actually rival Apple in terms of design.

Apple Mac Mini

Apple Mac Mini

You won’t have to deal with outdated hardware if you pick up Apple’s Mac Mini – it uses the latest Core 2 Duo processors and nVidia’s excellent GeForce 9400 chipset. This graphics processor will allow for some light gaming and, with the right software, GPU-accelerated computing under OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7. You will, of course, have to purchase a Windows 7 license to go with your new Mac, but it’s worth it – ironically, Windows has always run great on Intel Mac hardware.

It’s small, it’s quiet, and it can run all of the most popular operating systems on the market. What’s the catch?

The drawback of the Mac Mini is the Studio Hybrid’s greatest asset. The array of ports Apple offers leaves a lot to be desired, and as with all Macs there is no Blu Ray option on the Mini – Apple would much rather you buy HD TV and movies from the iTunes store, thank you very much.

The lack of HDMI port hurts especially badly, since TVs don’t (yet?) support Apple’s Mini DisplayPort. Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapters do exist, but even then you’ll only get the video signal, since Macs won’t transfer audio data though Mini DisplayPort. It’s a shame, because the Mac Mini equipped with its GeForce 9400 and Windows 7 would make for a great HTPC.

Build Your Own

I’ll assume that if you’re into building your own HTPC instead of buying one, you’re familiar with the basics of PC building – other sites cover the ins and outs of that much more extensively than we can here. Still, I can at least make some recommendations.

First, this is a space where I might actually recommend AMD processors to you over Intel’s. You can find very cheap, very low-power processors from them that still have enough computing muscle to perform most tasks. The main draw of AMD processors is that you won’t be tied to Intel’s lackluster integrated graphics solutions – nVidia and AMD integrated GPUs are much better for this sort of thing, and you’ll be able to do some gaming as long as your expectations are modest.

If you’re working with the smallest form factor available (mini ITX), be aware of the limitations of a computer crammed into such a small space – trying to put in a quad core processor is going to make the thing melt. There’s just not enough ventilation. If you want a powerhouse computer attached to your TV, clear out some more room in your entertainment center and use larger Micro ATX or ATX components. For me, this defeats the purpose of the HTPC (to be useful but unobtrusive), but to each his or her own.

The Flash Problem

You’ll notice that I didn’t suggest any systems powered by Intel’s Atom, in spite of the fact that the processor’s quiet operation and low power requirements should make it a competitive alternative for an HTPC. This processor’s drawback is, at the moment, Adobe Flash.

As of this writing, Flash stands at version 10.1 – a version of Flash without full support for GPU-accelerated video. Nvidia’s ION platform, which weds an Intel Atom to the same Geforce 9400 graphics chip found in all MacBooks and most MacBook Pros, will play DVDs and even Blu Ray movies at full speed because DVD and Blu Ray players can take advantage of the motherboard’s (relatively) strong GPU to compensate for the slow Atom processor. Unfortunately, even an overclocked dual-core Atom cannot smoothly play Flash video in fullscreen mode.

Until Adobe fixes this problem (Flash 11 is supposed to add GPU acceleration, though no release date has been announced), I cannot recommend an Atom-based HTPC, no matter how cool and quiet my custom-built Atom HTPC runs. You’ll end up just like me – watching jerky Hulu videos in 360p and waiting for Adobe to fix their outdated plugin. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

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The launch of Windows 7 has shown how successful an Operating System change over can be if it is done right. In keeping with the expectation that Windows 7 will be embraced by many users, Microsoft in conjunction with several computer manufacturers and retailers have put together a marketing offer for reduced computer hardware if purchased within 7 days.  The program is called 7 days of Windows 7 Savings.

These are some of the  21 special offers for computers  in the Windows 7 program. But it is only good for a limited time as it ends October 28, 2009.

Here is an overview of some of the computers in the program.

1. Best Buy:PC Home MakeOver

HP Laptop, netbook, desktop & monitor package  with Windows 7 Package includes:

• Space-saving HP Slimline desktop (s5212y)
• Thin-profile 18.5″ LCD monitor (w1858)
• Media-savvy HP laptop (G60-535DX)
• Compact HP Mini netbook (110-1125NR)
• Speedy NETGEAR Wireless-G router (WGR614)
• Seamless in-home setup of the PCs and router by Geek Squad

Price: $1,199.99

Other computers and laptops are available at BestBuy

2. Dell Studio XPS 13

Price $999.00

3. Acer offers a touch screen PC and several laptops.

Acer AZ5610-U9072 23-Inch

All-in-One Desktop PC

(Windows 7 Home Premium)

Price: $860.00

4. Asus

Several laptops and desktops are offered in the 7 day sale.

Models offered through Amazon.com

5. HP

Six different computers and laptops are in the HP inventory for the Windows7 special offer.

HP Pavilion dv4t Series Laptop $579.99

HP Pavilion dv6t Series Laptop $679.99

HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition Series Laptop $1299.99

HP Pavilion p6280t Series  Desktop $549.99

HP Pavilion Elite e9250t Series Desktop $849.99

HP TouchSmart 600t Series Desktop $1,049.99

6. Lenovo

Lenovo has three laptops on sale.

ThinkPad W700 laptop 1275.00

ThinkPad T400 laptop $705.00

ThinkPad SL510 laptop $450.00

7. Sony This Touch screen PC  comes with a 24″ screen and 6 gb of Ram.

VAIO® L Series All-in-One Touchscreen $1799.00

7.  Toshiba

Satellite® L500 and A500 Series $424.15 and 662.15

There are certain to be more special offers but this group shows variety. Something that demonstrates the versatility and features of Windows 7.

Source:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/offers/7-days/

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Courtesy Techtree.com

Acer and HP, among others, do not want you upgrading your current computer to Windows 7.

Maybe that’s a little dramatic – let me clarify. Often, when a new OS releases, PC manufacturers will simply begin selling it on their current machines instead of the older version of the operating system. Things are a little different now than they were when Windows Vista was released, though – flagging PC sales and the excellent press that Windows 7 has been getting means that computer makers are milking the new OS for all it’s worth.

First, HP, who yesterday announced nearly a dozen new PCs in their new Windows 7 PC lineup. Most notable among these is a new consumer-oriented TouchSmart tablet PC starting at $799, and two new TouchSmart all-in-one desktop PCs which start at $899 for a 20-inch model and $1049 for a 23-incher.

Key in HPs strategy for both home and office PCs is Windows 7′s multi-touch capabilities, and if these models are successful I can see touch capability becoming standard on computers just as webcams are becoming standard. HP’s DV3 laptop, a Europe-only model for now, is a standard laptop which happens to have a touch screen – this could be a glimpse of the future.

Acer’s lineup is more modest than HP’s – just two laptops, one a 15-inch touchscreen model going for $800, the other an 11.6-inch not-quite-a-netbook that lists for $600. As with HP, if Acer’s touchscreen model is a hit, expect to see more of them.

The smaller of Acer’s offerings highlights another interesting trend in computing lately, the combination of the netbook and the ultraportable computer.

The rise of the netbook let PC manufacturers know that bigger was not always better, that there was a market for smaller, less powerful, less feature-rich PCs. The problem for consumers is that these computers were sometimes too stripped-down, not offering enough functionality or being too small to use comfortably. The problem for manufacturers is that, at $300-$400, margins on these products are razor-thin.

Now, Acer and Dell and others are offering something in between – 11 and 12-inch screen sizes offer the portability and weight of a netbook, while low-voltage Core 2 Duo processors and newer integrated graphics provide more computing power than the standard Intel Atom paired with the anemic and aging GMA 950. These units also sell in the $500-$600 range, the same as low-end 15-inch notebooks, a price point with which manufacturers seem more comfortable. Windows 7′s more modest system requirements means that these ultraportables can finally run a modern OS instead of the eight-year-old Windows XP.

What’s my point, you ask? When Vista came out, faster was better, not least because you wanted the fastest computer you could get to run Vista at a reasonable speed. Now, Windows’ increased flexibility in terms of features and system requirements is leading to a larger variety of computers on the market. In short, consumers get more choice – it seems like lately there’s a computer tailored to almost any task you could imagine, and that’s definitely a good thing.

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Who could have imagined over even the last ten years that the PC, a business device, would be welcomed with such open arms into the home.  That huge sections of our living rooms and spare bedrooms would be devoted to huge beige, then black, boxes.

Windows 8 is due in beta 2011 for release in 2012.  This will mark 30 years of the home computer revolution of the ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and BBC Micro.  Three whole decades since Sir Clive Sinclair launched the ZX81 to such huge acclaim.  His previous home computer, the ZX80, had failed to make inroads in the home, but the £99 ZX81 was remarkable for its time.  It was the first home computer to be widely available on the high street, and the first computer that households could actually afford, with an Apple II or IBM PC costing around £2,500.

I remember fondly getting my first ZX81 and I consider myself very privileged to have been born when I was, and to have been growing up through the most exciting part of the home computer revolution.

I had initially wanted a colouring book but my parents had seen the ‘educational value’ of the Sinclair machine and were determined I was getting one.  I remember vividly the trip to WH Smith that resulted in a very bemused few days for me while I tried to come to terms with what this thing was.  Once I had it though I was hooked!

Back then you joined a camp and developed a loyalty that seemed to take on a life of its own.  If you were serious about computing you were in one of three.  Either Sinclair, Commodore or Acorn (BBC).  The Sinclair fans were the the fun people who enjoyed life on a shoestring and, at least publicly, considered the machine’s foibles endearing, even if we were all privately fuming that it took 45 minutes to load a game of Horace Goes Skiing.

The Commodore people had more money and, thus, a proper keyboard.  They clearly had the better machine but the Sinclair crowd would never let them win that argument.  The BBC crowd were the ones you knew would end up doing advanced degrees at University.  That was the way it was back then.

I was firmly in the Sinclair camp.  After my ZX81 I owned a Speccy, a Speccy+2 and a Sinclair QL.  I am one of a great many people who consider the ZX Spectrum to be one of the finest computers ever created.  It brought about the home computer revolution pretty much on its own and, consequently, was copied right around the globe.

It wasn’t until Amstrad came in with more of a business focus did things begin to change.  The Spectrum and Commodore 64 had given birth to the first generation of dedicated games consoles and that left the market open for something more serious.  Back then everybody was still talking about the paperless office, a concept we’d never really trust these days, and Amstrad brought to market products to help small businesses and individuals become more productive at home and at work.  They lit the way and showed the likes of Dell and Compaq how to produce mass-market PCs for under £500.  It was at this time that Compaq created a compatible clone BIOS for the IBM PC.  From that moment on the home computer revolution was over!

It had lasted only five short years but they were a truly exciting time.

So just how the hell does my personal nostalgia trip fit in with Windows 8 I hear you ask?  It’s actually Windows XP that started the ball rolling with this but Windows Vista and Windows 7 have both grasped the bull by both horns and Windows 8 will, I think, complete the picture.

This is the excitement we feel about how it works and operates and how we interact with the next version of Windows.  After the first PC clones began to appear we became bogged down with performance.  The important thing was the next development in technology and not the operating system itself.  Windows 95 got tongues wagging, but all too quickly the excitement died down to be replaced again by talk of the next big hardware revolution.  Finally we have OS interfaces that excite and engage people on a daily basis and that can actually maintain that level of enthusiasm.  The fact that modern hardware has for a few years now provided all that we need has obviously helped this conversation to flourish.

This revolution really started, nay exploded, in 1982 with the ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro and Commodore 64 changing the face of childhood forever.  The clones came flooding in, everyone with their own ideas.  Innovation and excitement were the order of the day and you couldn’t go anywhere or speak to anyone without the home computing revolution coming into the conversation.

It makes me remember spending Saturday mornings in my local high street electronics shops.  There were always large crowds of kids gathered around the computers.  We’d compare the different interfaces and the way the machines operated.  Each one brought something exciting to the mix but it was never the hardware that excited us.  Okay so the keyboard had a thing or two to contribute.  You either loved or hated the squidgy keys of the Speccy and most people hated the blister’inducing keyboard of the Oric 1, even though the machine itself really impressed.  Generally though it was how we interacted with the machines that made them successful or reduced their developers to tears when the receivers were called in.

Back then this was essential because, in order to own one of these machines, you had to program it yourself.  The user interface as everything.  This is where the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and BBC Micro excelled.  All three had interfaces that people could actually use.

You have to have been born during a few short years in the late 1960s and early 1970s to appreciate the magic of that time.  It was truly, the most exciting period of my childhood, and something that no child born before or since will ever be able to share.

This is something we take for granted now on modern PCs.  But it’s still not always that way.  Windows 7 may offer great leaps forward in how we interact with our PCs, but any trained eye will be able to point out all the places it fails.

I can only hope, and look forward, to the way we interact with Windows 8, whatever it is, causing enough excitement to commemorate this 30th anniversary appropriately.

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Some of my testing for Windows 7 is being done on an old Dell Latitude D400, a four-year-old laptop with 1GB of RAM, a 1.8GHz single core Pentium M, and a 12″ display with a resolution of 1024×768. Vista was a slug on this computer, but I’ve found Windows 7 to be pleasantly usable. That being said, if you brought the same computer to me and asked me if you should upgrade it to Windows 7, my answer would probably be no.

Driver problems

Why would I say this if my experience has been mostly positive? The first reason is driver support. This particular Dell uses Intel’s Extreme Graphics chipset, which while miserable for 3D even when it was new is more than capable of rendering the Windows desktop in 2D. Windows Vista includes a basic driver for this graphics card. Windows 7, for whatever reason, does not, and I couldn’t find one using Windows Update either. This left me with a postage stamp-sized 640×480 screen.

This driver situation is true not just of this particular Intel chip, but of basically any graphics processor that doesn’t support the new Windows Aero effects.

The solution? Download the XP driver from the Dell Web site and install it in XP compatibility mode. People who tinker with computers are used to this kind of thing, but try explaining that to a family member who’s having trouble. And imagine the problems you’d have if you didn’t know what kind of video card you had beforehand!

This poor driver support can also lead to other problems. This particular laptop supports Intel’s Speedstep technology, which slows down a processor to use less power when it is not being heavily used. Windows 7 detects this automatically for most modern Intel and AMD processors and chipsets, but this laptop just didn’t get it. As a result the processor never slowed down, and the laptop ran hot, its fans were loud, and its battery life suffered.

No support for Windows Aero

As I mentioned before, this laptop’s graphics chip doesn’t support Windows Aero. Most of Windows 7′s features still work without Aero – you can still shake windows to make others minimize, and Windows 7 Aero Snap still makes viewing documents side-by-side or using multiple monitors much more pleasant, but without the animations it’s just missing a certain something. You can’t use Aero Peek, Flip 3D (Windows + Tab) or Live Thumbnail preview at all.

The new taskbar, useful as it is, takes up more screen real estate than the old one, making 1024×768 feel even more cramped. The Windows 7 Basic theme is ugly and not as customizable. Applications like Windows Live Movie Maker require Aero to run. Need I go on? Aero is an essential part of 7, and going without it makes the operating system less pleasurable to use.

Widescreen vs. fullscreen

Old laptops like this one also use a fullscreen monitor with a 4:3 aspect ratio, as opposed to the 16:9 or 16:10 widescreen monitors found in almost all modern laptops. For office work, Aero Snap’s ability to view two documents side by side suffers because there’s just not enough space to put two documents next to each other. While you’re watching widescreen movies and TV shows in fullscreen mode, a large portion of your screen goes unused. Again, this old laptop can edit documents and play video files, but the experience isn’t as good as it could be.

The cost equation

My final argument against upgrading an old laptop such as this one to Windows 7 is cost. If you’re paying Microsoft’s upgrade price for Windows (and let’s assume you are, for the sake of argument), you’re spending at least $120 for an upgrade license of Windows 7 Home Premium. For that much money, I’d urge you to visit your nearest retailer, or the computer store of your favorite laptop maker. These days, a decent laptop with a widescreen display, moderately fast dual-core processor, a DVD burner, lots of RAM and full support for Windows Aero can be had for only $500 or $600, and sometimes less if you’re willing to buy refurbished or get a good sale price. Netbooks go for even less, and add extreme portability and great battery life into the mix while performing about as quickly as my four-year-old Dell.

Laptops are cheaper than ever, and when Windows 7 ships on October 22nd you’ll be able to get a great deal that will blow your old laptop out of the water.

In conclusion

Some of you have probably had better experiences with your old laptops than I did with mine, and some of you may be able to live without that widescreen monitor or the flashy new graphical effects. And people with computers just a year or two old will have hardware that fully supports all of Windows 7′s features – a good rule of thumb is that if your computer runs Vista well, the upgrade to 7 is definitely worth it.

Still, while Windows 7 runs just fine on some older computers that would never run Vista, I think your experience will be better if you buy a new PC on or after October 22nd. You’ll get fast hardware for a low price, and a very good operating system to go along with it – sounds like a good deal to me.

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It seems as though more and more companies are relying heavily upon the release of Windows 7, considering that every major hardware manufacturer has pledged their support to Windows 7 and have done everything possible to further the release, such as Sony or Nvidia. Now Dell has also joined the mainstream movement, as detailed in one of the posts on the Windows 7 Partner blog by Jim Ginger, an employee over at Dell.

In the post, Jim pointed out that many customers are not your technological gear heads, and that most will find that “migrating to a new OS can be complicated and risky without the proper planning.” Unfortunately, not everyone has a technology friendly son assisting them with the migration. Even so, Dell describes itself as an “important resource” to business customers during the migration, such as the following services that Jim outlined:

Application Management Services: Application compatibility is a key concern for many customers. Dell has developed a suite of services to efficiently identify, test, remediate and deploy applications. Dell can also help customers inventory and rationalize their application portfolio before initiating the remediation activities to focus resources on the most critical applications.

Migration and Deployment Services: In order to ease upgrading to Windows 7, Dell offers readiness assessments and optimized OS deployment services. Dell’s deployment services help customers with all migration aspects including organization, infrastructure, hardware, software, image and deployment. By leveraging Dell’s global deployment capabilities and tools, customers can more efficiently upgrade to Windows 7, while decreasing deployment time, mitigating risk, and reducing network traffic.

Image Management Services: These provide fully functional images built by Dell consultants according to the customers’ specifications that are ready for deployment of Windows 7 on Dell client systems.

It seems as though there are plenty of opportunities for business during the Windows 7 migration, as many businesses wish to simply skip Vista and head straight for Redmond’s new release from XP. Hardware manufacturers will simply have a field day from all of the new hardware upgrades required.

What do you think? Feel free to comment below.

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A recent Business Week article entitled Windows 7: Microsoft vs. the PC Makers outlines the problems that PC Makers like Dell, HP or Sony have with Microsoft’s Windows 7 price expectations. According to the article PC Makes have to cope with lower hardware sale prices, the rise of the low cost netbook market and Microsoft’s expectations. Microsoft is expecting PC Makers to pay $50 for the Windows 7 Home Starter Edition which is two to three times the price that they currently pay for Windows XP licenses. Windows 7 Starter has been designed for the low cost market only which means that Microsoft does not allow PC Makers to license the operating system for larger notebook or desktop computer systems.

More interesting than that is the comment of Mike Abary, a senior vice-president at Sony’s (SNE) Vaio PC unit, who mentions that Windows 7 Home Premium would raise the price of larger notebooks by $200.

The cost of Windows could rise more sharply on other machines. Microsoft has told PC makers the $50 Starter Edition will be available only for netbooks with screen sizes smaller than 10.2 inches and chips that aren’t capable of playing most games or watching video. Larger netbooks would have to use Windows 7 Home Premium, which would add $200 to a unit’s cost, says Mike Abary, a senior vice-president at Sony’s (SNE) Vaio PC unit.

The question here is if the $200 is a special price for PC Makers or the retail price of the Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. Only 16% of all users who have voted in our latest poll expect Windows 7 to cost $201 or more with an additional 16% thinking that it will cost between $151-$200.

Would you buy Windows 7 Home Premium if it would cost $200 or even more than that?

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