CBS: computer stores sell half more due to the end of Windows XP

The end of support for Windows XP has meant that computer stores have sold 55 percent more products than in April 2013. In any case, sales in these stores are going well again this year.

According to CBS, computer store sales started to recover in January and reached a tentative peak in April, with sales up 55 percent; in the first three months of 2014, this increase was already more than 20 percent compared to the same period a year earlier. The CBS relates it to the end of support for Windows XP. With the definitive end of support for this OS, many consumers would like to replace hardware and software.

However, the price of products in computer stores is falling; that decrease was more than 5 percent in April compared to a year earlier. Although computer stores benefit the most, stores with a focus on consumer electronics, which will therefore often also sell computers, also show an increase of almost 14 percent.

It’s unclear whether the end of XP has caused a temporary spike or if it’s a recovery that continues; no newer figures are known than those for April.