That's essentially the argument that Jeff Walsh makes:
For the marketplace's sake, Windows 7 needs to be a success. However, even a sluggishly performing Windows 7 spells trouble for the PC market and, potentially, could mark the end of the conventional PC buy/spend cycle.
On the other hand, maybe it's a bad idea for the market to depend on Microsoft's latest OS to have the same effect on PC sales that the December holiday season has on retail sales. It'd be nice if the sale of new hardware didn't depend on the release status of one operating system.
Additionally, we have to take other factors into account, when defining expectations for new PC sales. During the our recent economic troubles, hardware sales took a bigger hit than software sales. It'd be a wee bit unfair to place all the burden of desktop and laptop market health on the release of Windows 7.
The good news is, there's still a market for new hardware, and fortunately, it has nothing to do with Windows 7. I'm speaking, of course, about netbooks, which have succeeded because they didn't get sucked into the maelstrom of Microsoft's Vista woes. I'm sure that lesson isn't lost at Dell, HP, and other PC manufacturers.
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