Will Windows XP Boost PC Market?Will Windows XP Boost PC Market?

At the Windows XP launch event in New York last week, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates bid farewell to MS-DOS, the rickety architecture that underlies Windows 95 and other software products. Microsoft says more than 85% of its customers still run operating systems built on DOS, which it believes makes the market for Windows XP look ripe.

Less than 13% of the world's 550 million PC users run Microsoft's more-stable Windows NT code, which is used in XP. Gates says the company will keep pumping out upgrades. "We expect every two to three years to have a major advance in Windows," he says.

But computer vendors at the event offered a mixed outlook on whether XP will provide a boost for the PC market. Gateway Inc. CEO Ted Waitt says he's "not forecasting a big uplift from XP," while Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell says he expects fourth-quarter sales of home PCs to increase. However, that remark had Compaq CEO Michael Capellas shaking his head.