Windows 7 and XP to contend for netbook market share

Windows XP will continue to be available for the netbook sector after Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 7 has been released for the same market.

“Let’s see what the market does,” Microsoft’s vice president of business strategy Neil Holloway told ZDNet. “As we introduce Windows 7 for netbooks, the availability of XP will be less and less. I think, on this one, the market will decide on Windows 7.”

Windows XP has seen its retirement pushed back as Vista is considered too taxing on smaller systems such as Netbooks. Although Windows 7 is based on the Vista architecture, Microsoft claims that the new OS is considerably more lightweight than its predecessor.