Microsoft Asks OEMs To End Windows 7 PC Sales Oct 31st

Microsoft has set a deadline for OEM PC manufacture's such as Dell, HP and others to stop the sale of Windows 7 equipped home PCs as of Oct. 31st. End of sales refers to the date when a particular version of Windows is no longer shipped to retailers or Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

On the Windows Lifecycle site where it posts such policies, Microsoft now notes that Oct. 31, 2014, is the end-of-sales date for new PCs equipped with Windows 7 Home Basic, Home Premium or Ultimate.The setting of such deadlines is nothing new to Microsoft, and users wanting to get their hands on per-manufactured machines will still have the option of business machines equipped with Windows 7 Professional.

Microsoft's practice, first defined in 2010, is to stop selling an older operating system in retail one year after the launch of its successor, and halt delivery of the previous Windows edition to OEMs two years after a new version launches. The move is an intentional one, with Microsoft hoping to spur sales of its newest operating systems as well as keeping consumers updated to the latest versions.

Often citing high consumer demand, some OEMs, notably Hewlett-Packard, have made headlines for marketing PCs with previous version of Windows Pre-loaded. Most notable in the case of Windows Vista and Windows XP. Poor feedback and low consumer demand for Vista prompted many OEM's to release PCs with downgrade options to XP.

Microsoft's Windows 8 originally showed impressive numbers, hitting 100 million licenses sold as of last May. However, since then sales have slumped and the new OS continues to lag behind its predecessor.

Tami Reller, Microsoft's executive vice president of marketing, announced that Microsoft has sold 200 million Windows 8 licenses in about 15 months. That's way ahead of Windows Vista, which only hit 180 million licenses after 18 months, but well behind Windows 7, which only took a year to reach 240 million licenses sold.

With Windows 7 still holding a dominate market share one would have to question why Microsoft would be pushing so strongly to stop the sales of the popular OS. Perhaps they are looking to avoid the fiasco of Windows Vista and Windows XP?