If you need a new computer, buy a new computer. Maybe your business is expanding (there are signs of life in our economy), maybe your old Windows XP computer has collapsed or is just too slow – whatever the reason, if you need hardware, buy hardware.
But if your next computer purchase is optional, there are some good reasons to wait until the fall or Xmas shopping season. That’s my plan. For the first time in years, there are some good reasons to hold off for a few months before you purchase new technology.
All of these things will be on the market by the end of the year:
Windows 7, the replacement for beleaguered Vista. It’s only going to be an incremental change from Vista but many of the changes will be for the better and with luck it will benefit from better marketing and avoid the negative stigma that has doomed Vista.- More powerful netbooks running Windows 7. I think it will be a winning combination that will make a new computer practically an impulse purchase.
- Intel Core i7 processors. I don’t know the details about the Intel roadmap for the rest of the year but the hype suggests that there may be some big jumps ahead. The Core i7 processors seem to be the heart of the next generation of desktop CPUs and Intel also has new processors lined up for notebooks and servers.
- New and hopefully improved cell phone/PDAs running Windows Mobile 6.5, along with likely new and improved models from Apple, Blackberry, and the manufacturers running other operating systems.
- Microsoft Server 2008 Foundation. I’ll write more about this soon. Basically Microsoft has announced a stripped-down version of Server 2008 to be sold at an aggressively low price with some features locked down so it’s only useful to businesses that have 1-15 users. It could be very attractive to those businesses – all the stability of Server 2008 as a file and print server and domain controller, without the complexity of Small Business Server.
It will be a relatively quiet summer, I think, but there will be lots of shiny new objects in the fall. Start saving your pennies for new toys!
