It's a deal you shouldn't miss. Or so says Microsoft.
With Windows XP's support expiring on April 8, Microsoft is hard-pressed on luring its users to ditch its 13-year-old operating system and instead upgrade to new Windows 8 personal computers worth over $599.
"This is a special promotion for current XP users. Customers going to MicrosoftStore.com from a machine running Windows XP will see the deal pop up automatically," said a company spokesperson.
In a promotion that runs on the company's official website, it offers a $100 money-off to purchases of a Surface Pro 2 or other selected Windows 8.1 PCs. The offer comes with freebies, including a 90-day technical support and a software download for migrating all files to the new PC.
"People can also bring in their old XP device to one of the more than 80 Microsoft retail store locations and instantly save $100 on the purchase of a qualifying PC priced at $599 or above," the spokesman also said.
Said offer runs from March 20, 2014 till June 15, 2014, or - like most promotions - while supplies last. It is also available only in selected retail and online stores of Microsoft products in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
Microsoft earlier started another promo wherein it handed out $50 gift cards to consumers buying one of the 16 devices profiled on their page, all running on Windows 8.1, such as notebooks, desktops, tablets and hybrids. The gift-card promo started in March and runs through April 30.
The company, for almost three years now, has attempted constantly to dump the XP and has recommended consumers to upgrade or purchase a new computer with the Windows 8.1 system. While reviews about its successors, Windows 7 and Windows 8, have been kind enough, Windows XP loyalists simply will not give up their favorite operating system.
StatCounter recently estimated that more than 15 percent of PCs still run on XP, somehow suggesting that the market still has yet to adapt to the radical user-interface redesign of the Windows 8. These consumers are not alone, however. Even government agencies and businesses still depend on the outdated version of Windows.
On the other hand, Net Applications, an Internet measurement company, said 29.5 percent of all PCs in the world have the XP, while 32.2 percent are under Windows 8. Computerworld disclosed projection that between 22 percent and 25 percent of all PCs will remain with XP by the end of 2014.
