Businesses are buying second-hand PCs running
Windows XP as a cheap way to keep mission-critical applications
running.
Firms are sticking with XP as they cannot upgrade to
Windows Vista because it does not support some legacy
enterprise applications, says analyst firm
Gartner.
Companies are also buying old XP machines as they do not want to
mix perfectly good existing XP machines with more expensive Vista
machines when they need extra PCs.
Such mixed environments can cause operational and training
issues.
According to Gartner, there were around 197 million PCs
discarded in 2007, 44% of which are being sold in the market as
second-hand items. Many of the machines were originally discarded
by firms going for a complete Vista upgrade.
Some are now being sold on auction sites such as
eBay and others through traditional reseller channels.
Consumers are also buying second-hand XP machines as some of
their applications do not run on Vista either.
Charles Smulders, a Gartner analyst, has warned firms to check
whether the second-hand PCs they are considering are running a
legitimate copy of XP before buying them.
Microsoft has already extended the availability of Windows XP
when sold with new PCs.