Microsoft 'overestimated willingness of customers in dumping Windows XP,' says expert

Microsoft appealed to its customers to dump the soon-to-retire Windows XP operating system and also ask their friends or family members to switch to the latest 8.1 OS, however, an expert has reportedly pointed out that the software maker grossly overestimated the loyalty of its customers.

Executive Vice President at Levick, an American firm that specializes in crisis public relations and corporate reputation messaging, Gene Grabowski, said that although, there is nothing wrong with asking customers for help, one needs to establish loyalty before asking them.

Grabowski further said that Microsoft was essentially asking its customers to help it sell more product, as it neither had the customer loyalty it had assumed it had, nor a plan that made the effort attractive to those it asked for assistance, PC World reports.

Customers not only rejected the idea, but also refused to recommend Windows 8.1, apart from criticizing Microsoft for not offering a discount on an upgrade path from XP to 8.1 that retained settings, files or apps.

Grabowski further said that the deadline of April 8, when Microsoft would end security support to Windwos XP has started to irk a lot of businesses, let alone home users, that Microsoft's asking them to dig into their pockets and learn a new OS.

He advised that Microsoft should state the positives of upgrading from XP, but then do everything possible to make that easy, like deep discounts for upgrades to a newer version of Windows and a migration tool that retains data and settings when upgrading from XP as incentives, the report added.