I'm willing to bet a large number of XP users stole the OS in the first place and would not be paying Microsoft for support. Not that providing them support would matter anyway.
As for the people that did pay for it...they probably don't have the budget to upgrade, let alone pay for support.
I think you're half right. I'd bet most XP users are using XP because it's the OS their computer came with. I do agree with you that most of them would not pay even $1/month for continued support.
A large percentage of the users still on XP are in China. Most of those are pirated. A company in China is offering some sort of paid patching/security updates with a deal with Microsoft.
I think that Microsoft would make more money if those "500 million!" XP users woke up one day, realized their 10-year-old XP tower no turns on, and were forced into buying a newer PC.
Problem is, this is not a great time for that. Should have waited for Windows 9 to be released. ):
These folks, according to a variety of reports, include many banks and most of the ATM networks. Smart corporate money knows that if you have something that works great for a single application you do not swap it out. You run it until something comes along that would save you enormous amounts of money. This is not happening with banking software.
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$1 a month.
5 years and you've bought W7.
End of extended support for XP is 2014
End of Extended support for W8 is 2023 (W7 is 2020)
14 + 5 = 19
Hmmmm. I know basic maths is rumoured to be difficult, but somehow I don't think banks are that stupid.
Even if the 2014 EOL applied to WXP embedded. Which, IIRC, it doesn't.
"NCR – which supplies 60 per cent of the UK’s cash points – believes 95 per cent of Britain’s ATMs are today still running Windows XP with less than a month to go.
NCR told The Reg it has been working with Microsoft for nearly three years through workshops and sales camps to persuade banks to upgrade their ATMs."
Then they go into costs, etc., including "Microsoft is charging users who want extended support for custom agreements $200 per PC in the first year of a contract, $400 in year two and $800 for year three."
So it seems that Microsoft is selling support, just not to the public in general, and rather more expensive than John Dvorak suggested.
