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Just because you have a large installed base for a product, doesn’t mean
it’s an attractive market for add-on products.

Consider when Microsoft finally abandoned Windows 98, there were said to be
something like 40 million people still using that product. But they were
quite happy not spending any more money on their systems, so in economic
terms, they had become invisible.

Windows XP still accounts for the vast majority of the Windows installed
base. But it looks like it, too, is already becoming invisible: Microsoft is
not going to provide a version of Internet Explorer 9 for XP
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/there-will-never-be-an-ie-9-for-xp/170>.

In message <i6usrs$dl9$>, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

> Windows XP still accounts for the vast majority of the Windows installed
> base. But it looks like it, too, is already becoming invisible: Microsoft
> is not going to provide a version of Internet Explorer 9 for XP
> <http://www.zdnet.com/blog/networking/there-will-never-be-an-ie-9-for-xp/170>.

Naturally diehard XP users are not impressed
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/readers-have-spoken-no-ie9-on-xp-is-a-mistake-microsoft-will-regret/9738>.
But how can they make their displeasure known to Microsoft, given that
they’ve already ruled themselves out of giving the company more of their
money?

In message <>, Crash McBash wrote:

> If Windows users running XP or earlier stay on XP then this will itself
> send a message to MS.

I think Microsoft has already given up on most of the existing pool of XP
users. So their rejection of IE9 as an excuse to upgrade says nothing new.