XP N proves unpopular with PC makers, customers
WinInfo | at | by Mike
What if you built an OS and no one wanted it? That's the situation Microsoft faces now, as its European Union (EU)-mandated Windows XP N editions are met with a complete lack of interest from PC makers and consumers.
Retailers in Europe report that there's no interest in the XP N versions. The problems are price and perception. Despite lacking a key feature of the mainstream XP versions, the XP N editions are priced identically to their non-N counterparts. Too, the lack of a media player means that XP N buyers need to manually download a media player, which, believe it or not, is still a daunting process for many people.