Gateway on Tuesday started taking preorders for PCs with Windows XP, as the company looks to get a jump on competitors. The PC maker will begin shipping the systems to customers in late September, Gateway spokesman Brad Williams said. Although Williams would not give an official ship date, PC makers earlier had pegged Sept. 24 as the date when Microsoft said they could begin selling computers with the Windows XP operating system. The OS is not expected to appear as a standalone product on store shelves until Oct. 25. San Diego-based Gateway hopes to use its 296 Country stores across the United States to help drive sales of Windows XP and thus its own computers. On Tuesday, the company began offering in-store demonstrations of the new OS, but not of the PCs that will run it.
|