The looming crisis of the death of Windows XP

If you're a Windows XP user who has delayed the dreaded Microsoft OS "upgrades" because they are frequently bombs, you are facing an excruciating torture session in April, 2014, when Microsoft will declare XP officially dead. Here's what this milestone means to Microsoft's captive audience.

In 1Q13, Windows XP's market share of the OS market was 38.31 percent, following Windows 7 which commanded 44.72 percent. The usage of Windows XP has dropped to some degree over the past year, but not as much as Microsoft would probably like. In June 2012, the platform owned 43.61 percent of the market, and by December it still retained 39.08 percent. That said, Microsoft has a long way to go before Windows XP is completely out of the picture.

In 2011 400 million PCs were sold. Let's say, just for talking purposes, that at termination of XP there will be 400x10^6x0.3831 = 153,240,000 units that must upgrade to Windows 7 or 8. (The actual number of XP machines out there is far greater, but this crude estimate will do to make my point.)

 My computer repair guy says that it would take a smart user 2 weeks of training to get facile enough with the new OS to the extent that he could be writing his book, building his spreadsheets, etc. without the distraction and frustration of having to learn how to do things using the new OS. Assume that he doesn't spend time or money reinstalling current apps and installing new ones needed because of the "upgrade". So...we've got 153,240,000x80 = 12.259200 billion man-hours that must be used and paid for to get everyone now using XP back to their previous productivity level.  At, say, $20/man hour that's a cost of $245.184 billion--all borne by the employer, who used to employ secretaries to turn out reports, proposals, etc. How's that lookin' to ya, Mr. CEO?