PC makers: We'll be set for Windows 10 July 29
Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Dell and the rest of the PC pack is prepared to ship Windows 10 hardware for delivery July 29 as the Microsoft ecosystem aims to avoid the Windows 8 launch mistakes.
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On a conference call Wednesday afternoon, Mike Nash, vice president of product strategy and customer experience for HP's PC unit, said customers can preorder Windows 10 PCs now for a July 29 delivery date. HP also said that Windows 10 PCs will be in select resellers Aug. 2.
"We spent so much time with Microsoft that everything (PCs) we had in 2015 was designed with Windows 10 in mind," said Nash. Nash added that whether PCs were Windows 8 or Windows 7 or consumer or enterprise that they were built for Windows 10.
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell, tweeted to PC World's Mark Hachman that the PC maker had a similar July 29 date.
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PC makers are reiterating that they will have Windows 10 hardware after Microsoft executives misspoke at the company's partner conference this week. Microsoft indicated that Windows 10 wouldn't be preinstalled on PCs by July 29 and then backtracked to Bloomberg.
The PC maker banter lines up with word from Mary Jo Foley that Windows 10 has been released to manufacturing.
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Bottom line is that PCs will have Windows 10 on July 29. The ghost in the room is Microsoft's ill-fated launch of Windows 8. Windows 8 launched without a lot of hardware support for touch screens. Workable and inexpensive two-in-one devices also trailed the Windows 8 launch by months.
"Windows 8 was what it was," said Nash. This time around Microsoft has worked much more closely with PC partners.
What remains to be seen is whether Windows 10 will spur a PC upgrade cycle since it's a low-key update for folks with relatively new systems.