NPD Group Analysts Say Windows 8 Sales Sluggish 269
Nerval's Lobster writes "While Microsoft claims it's sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses in the month since launch—a more rapid pace than Windows 7—new data from research firm The NPD Group suggests that isn't helping sales of actual Windows devices, which, in its estimation, are down 21 percent from last year. Desktops dropped 9 percent year-over-year, while notebooks fell 24 percent. 'After just four weeks on the market, it's still early to place blame on Windows 8 for the ongoing weakness in the PC market,' Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at The NPD Group, wrote in a Nov. 29 statement attached to the data. 'We still have the whole holiday selling season ahead of us, but clearly Windows 8 did not prove to be the impetus for a sales turnaround some had hoped for.'" That seems to match the public grumbling of Acer and Asus about early sales. And though these figures exclude Surface sales, the newly announced prices on for new Windows 8 Pro-equipped Surface tablets might not endear them to anyone. Have you (or has your business?) moved to Windows 8?
businesses? (Score:2, Informative)
I know mine will never use Windows 8
Say What You Like About Win8 (Score:5, Funny)
It solves one of the worst and most persistent security issues with the Internet.
With the introduction of IE 10 on Windows 8, Microsoft relieves users from the threat of browser-based attacks, by making the system unusable for web-browsing.
Your overconfidence is astounding (Score:5, Funny)
Windows 8: where all Al Gore's Internet can root for success!
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Windows 8: where all Al Gore's Internet can root for success!
What you did:
It's there, and I see it.
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While IE10 has indeed be made Windows 8 completely unsuitable for user web-browsing, the architectural choice of moving IE10 into the Windows 8 kernel has left a security hole of goatse.cx proportions.
Windows 8: where all Al Gore's Internet can root for success!
Evidence to back that up? Not and not from this guy? [youtube.com]
FYI I am not an IE user per say, but I do give credit to Microsoft for improving their crappiest product last decade and making web developers and users alike much needed sanity.If people stopped bashing IE then it we could give corps a great reason to upgrade from crappy versions which benefit everyone as we want more HTML 5.
IE 10 has a dual sandbox for not only ASLR, and DEP, but also heap spraying protection as well. It has not been integrated at all in
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LOL...well put!!
Someone mod this one +1 Insightful too to back up those "Funny:"s.....
Re:Say What You Like About Win8 (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't give a damn how fast IE's render engine can spit out a page - when the whole affair is decked in usability handicaps. I am reminded of the Vonnegut story, Harrison Bergeron [wikipedia.org].
When you eliminate the 3 pop-ups and the blocking warning (1 click each) that interfere with you actually loading the element or even whole URL that you actually wanted.
There's no way this is a good experience. "Are You Sure" dialogue boxes are good for deleting files. Their use in IE10/Win8 feels like someone from preventing you from making a left turn in your automobile. "Are you sure you want to turn left?"
Yes, but that's now 3 blocks behind me!
When it comes down to it, this is just another damning indictment of Microsoft's Windows 8 travesty. Windows is now a barrier to the effective delivery of applications - that one formerly bought Windows to deliver.
Re:Say What You Like About Win8 (Score:5, Funny)
I don't give a damn how fast IE's render engine can spit out a page - when the whole affair is decked in usability handicaps. I am reminded of the Vonnegut story, Harrison Bergeron [wikipedia.org].
When you eliminate the 3 pop-ups and the blocking warning (1 click each) that interfere with you actually loading the element or even whole URL that you actually wanted.
There's no way this is a good experience. "Are You Sure" dialogue boxes are good for deleting files. Their use in IE10/Win8 feels like someone from preventing you from making a left turn in your automobile. "Are you sure you want to turn left?"
Yes, but that's now 3 blocks behind me!
When it comes down to it, this is just another damning indictment of Microsoft's Windows 8 travesty. Windows is now a barrier to the effective delivery of applications - that one formerly bought Windows to deliver.
I couldn't disagree with you more Jeremiah. With IE 10 I can download Chrome and Firefox faster than EVER!!
Re:businesses? (Score:5, Insightful)
We skipped Vista and only started using Win7 in March of this year. Similarly, we started using XP in 2004. If we follow the pattern, we might be using Win 9 about 3 years after it becomes available - assuming we stay with MS Windows.
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Didn't you hear, Win 9 will be out next year!
It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is the secure boot technology. I don't want to buy a laptop or desktop that does not easily let me use the Operating System of my own build and choice.
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Joe Shmoe doesn't even know what a regular boot is, let alone secure boot.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would it prevent pulling the drive and hooking it up via usb ?
Are they also encrypting the entire volume?
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Who voids the warranty for pulling a drive?
Dell does not, nor does HP.
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Just as a data point however, when I pulled the actual drive from the enclosure on an external drive, I apparently voided the warranty and WD does not honor any warranty on the bare drive. Since I had to remove it in order to recover the data, I wasn't too happy and have resolved never to buy an actual external drive in the future.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Informative)
But the local computer shop or data recovery firm sure cares, as secure boot eliminates their ability to bypass windows to recover data direct from storage.
That is FUD, lies, and misinformation.
a) secure boot can be easily disabled within bios/uefi on all x86 units, which is all current Windows 8 desktops, all current windows 8 laptops, and a big chunk of the windows 8 tablets too.* So if you drag in a working windows 8 pc, they can boot their favorite live cd with minimal effort.
b) Worst case they'd pull the hard drive out of the defective unit and just extract the data directly. Half the data recovery jobs a computer shop deals with are due to hardware failure where the laptop or desktop is fried, and pulling the hard drive out is the smart thing to do if the rest of the PC hardware doesn't work or is failing or is unreliable.
Secureboot is nearly irrelevant in this scenario.
Really, the only people secureboot currently impacts in any non-trivial way are people who want to dual boot linux and windows 8 on the same PC.
* WinRT tablets are the exception, but those devices are very much ipad market product, and data recovery would proceed along the same lines it does for an ipad. Can you boot an ipad up off your favorite linux live CD to recover the data? Of course not. Same thing.
Joe Shmoe will care that the latest virus to infest his system leaves his data corrupted and secure boot prevents any remedial actions.
Joe Shmoe doesn't think that far ahead.
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I'm Joe Schmoe and I don't like all of these comments about what I think, what I like, and what I will do.
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Joe Shmoe doesn't think that far ahead.
Neither do you apparently. At some point in the near future, secureboot will be a requirement everywhere.
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The recovery bootable OS will pay the whole $99 (and that's a one time fee not per user) and get a perfectly valid boot key.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Interesting)
Really? Most people I've talked to (normal people, not neckbeards) have refused to upgrade to Windows 8 because it's incomprehensible. Go on Youtube and look at the number of hits people are getting on "x relative tries to use Windows 8..." These aren't completely computer illiterate people (some of them are I'm sure), yet compared to what they're used to, Windows 8 is impossible to navigate. It's as if Microsoft dived head first into the tablet market without checking to see if there was any water in the pool first.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Interesting)
My own observation - two weeks ago, I went to the mall to check out the iPad mini (wife is thinking about one for Christmas). Microsoft had rented a kiosk to show Surface tablets not 200 feet away from the Apple store (gotta admire the chutzpah).
In the Apple store, I saw a dozen people playing with iPads or iPad minis, with Apple employees hovering nearby in case of questions. People were tapping and gesturing and doing what you'd expect on an iPad, almost entirely without any assistance from the employees.
Outside, about a half dozen people were clustered around the Surface kiosk talking with Microsoft employees. The difference? The Microsoft employees were having to show the users what to do, step-by-step . No one seemed to be able to just pick one up and make it work. Everyone needed help. The contrast was absolutely remarkable.
Windows 8 is the new Vista. I expect to see the Metro GUI turned into an option for Windows 9, and more heads to roll at Microsoft.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:4, Interesting)
> There was nothing redeeming about that OS.
Yes there was. Microsoft finally gave us real symlinks, so we no longer had to kludge them with NTFS junctions.
> If Metro is such a problem. Buy Windows 8, Install Start8 and never worry about metro again
And how, pray tell, do you restore Aero glass, proper handling of multiple monitors, and all the other little refinements that Microsoft *finally* got working again in Win7 after Vista broke them, then the preview releases of Win8 apparently took away again?
The fundamental problem with Windows 8 is that Microsoft took everything it's learned over the past 20 years about usability with high-end mouse-driven computers with multiple hi-res displays, and flushed it all down the toilet so phone apps can pretend they're real Windows applications worthy of respect instead of third-rate substitutes for the real thing. In effect, Microsoft's "solution" to the problem of desktop apps sucking heinously when run on phones with tiny touchscreens was to abolish desktop apps.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:4, Funny)
Is it true that you cannot have multiple Windows open in Windows 8?
That would seem to be a deal breaker for a lot of people.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/windows-8.html [useit.com]
"Lack of Multiple Windows = Memory Overload for Complex Tasks
One of the worst aspects of Windows 8 for power users is that the product's very name has become a misnomer. "Windows" no longer supports multiple windows on the screen. Win8 does have an option to temporarily show a second area in a small part of the screen, but none of our test users were able to make this work. Also, the main UI restricts users to a single window, so the product ought to be renamed "Microsoft Window."
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Insightful)
Lol wat?
The iOS interface was derided on slashdot, probably by people like you, for being too tonka toy. It's got to be the easiest interface to use ever developed. 1 year old kids can figure out how to use it in minutes. On the other hand, no one seems capable of figuring out Windows 8 without significant confusion, and preferably someone telling them how to use it. Ignoring the relative merits of each interface once you are an expert at them, it's one of the most ridiculous statements I've ever heard to say that the learning curve for Windows 8 is the same as that for iOS.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, no one seems capable of figuring out Windows 8 without significant confusion
For starters, how about two Internet Explorers, one in Metro and one on Desktop, that have nothing to do with each other? :-)
(Besides, Metroified IE is an abomination on a large screen, and a waste of time.)
I also found that the easiest way to shut the Win8 down is with Alt-F4. All other methods are an exercise in frustration.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:4, Informative)
For you. For a lot of people, even very computer literate people (developers and power users), it's substantially more difficult.
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Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, just stop. Whatever they're paying you, it's not worth your dignity.
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It's a nice OS, just the force fed metro/touch interface is the problem.
He's a nice doggie, just the biting/barking is the problem.
Ballmer's last stand (Score:5, Insightful)
Because of this sales failure, Ballmer is about receive "boot" technology...
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:4, Informative)
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For anyone who builds their own OSes secure boot is not an issue.
Re:It isn't Windows 8 I find to be the barrier... (Score:5, Informative)
So how easy is easy? Would going into the menu, finding the setting that says "Secure Boot" and changing that from "Enabled" to "Disabled" be too hard? (or Yes to No, or selecting "Disable Secure Boot" or whatever that open is called. Maybe it's something obtuse, like "Enable legacy boot"?).
Because every x86-based PC MUST have the option to disable secure boot. It's a requirement to get the Windows 8 certified logo on it.
The most obvious reason why is because people may want to well, boto a legacy OS like Windows 7.
And WIndows 8 can boot in legacy mode too, because despite most PCs shipping with UEFI (for a few years now - it's been Intel's thing except they also splash it with a BIOS setup app that configures the BIOS boot), most UEFI BIOSes out there right now do NOT support secure boot (again, legacy - UEFI has been around a while far longer than secure boot). And heck, I don't think Macs even support secure boot period even when booting in EFI mode.
As usual with even-numbered Windows releases... (Score:5, Insightful)
... my business is treating it as a minor, avoidable catastrophe and reacting accordingly.
Re:As usual with even-numbered Windows releases... (Score:5, Funny)
Overheard from our infrastructure manager: "Well, we skipped Vista..."
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Win8 is 6.2. I guess because the server version didn't get their own version this time (Win2003 was NT 5.2).
Go figure.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, the commercials show a Apple knock off that relies on technology people generally don't have yet. The surface side of it may be interesting, but how many of us have touch displays at home? My guess is, not that many. So if I'm going to be looking at Windows 8 and it's price, I'm also going to be looking for new hardware to make use of some of the features. It prices me to an Apple system pretty quickly and what do I gain? Immature applications? Still the hassle of viruses and security? More lock in to a company that is shit? No thanks.
Windows 8 is having the same problems as Windows Phone. It's like an Apple device with the same price. Consumers may generally be stupid, but they are not that stupid.
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Windows 8 is having the same problems as Windows Phone. It's like an Apple device with the same price.
Except that a Surface Pro will cost much more than an iPad 4, and with $100 of a full-fledged MacBook Air. The hype around Surface seems to be "you can run Office!" but there's a native version of Office for OS X. By capability, Surface Pro should be positioned against iPads, Nexuses, Fires, and other tablets. By price, though, it's going head-to-head with actual laptops. You know, those more familiar, more powerful devices with real built-in keyboards?
If the ability to run Office were a litmus test, I woul
Easiest interface is the one you already know... (Score:4, Insightful)
The MacOS UI peaked in like '86 and hasn't changed since. Because they had sense enough to leave well enough alone. At a certain point, there's not much you can do to improve a mouse-screen-keyboard interface. The easiest interface to use is THE ONE YOU ALREADY KNOW.
Yes (Score:2, Interesting)
I actually like it more than Windows 7, to the point that I wonder if I'm using the same OS as other people. I will grant, though, that I don't use the Metro stuff. Doesn't seem to be much point. But the other features are nice to have.
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Re:Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
The new task manager is very nice. Windows 8 is a lot better at loading the proper drivers out of the box (didn't have to download a thing on the two systems I've done clean installs on), I like the way search is separated wrt. files, applications, and settings (though some don't like it). It's a bit snappier than 7. Picture-based login is nice in some cases. Easy to create custom install images. I thought I would miss Aero, but I actually prefer the flat colors (though some more customization would be nice). Better multi-monitor support. Expanded keyboard shortcuts (mainly for new UI elements). You don't have to pay an arm and a leg for Bitlocker. And I actually like the Ribbon on the file explorer, but YMM-definitely-V on that one.
Basically, if you ignore Metro, Windows 8 is 7 with a full-screen start menu and some refinements. The only thing that's missing is jump list on start screen icons, though they're still around on the taskbar.
Re:Yes (Score:5, Interesting)
Ya, I don't really like Aero and the flat style in win8 looks fine to me, I like minimal UIs (I do like the Mac OS X style myself with no borders to windows).
However from what I see there's still some problems with using the "Metro" as a start menu. It doesn't have full access to all the programs and utilities, you have to open up a separate list, it's more like access to frequently used applications, things you may as well pin to task bar or put on desktop anyway (only advantage are phone-like live icons I won't use). Critical things are hidden or difficult to find, like a "run" menu or even the shutdown option. If you start IE10 from the desktop and also Metro you will have two separate browsers with separate pages and history and look, so you wont' want to use Metro as the "start menu" for IE10 if you want to use refer to it on the desktop.
You're also swapping between two different UI styles, this is sort of like someone coming up with a cute fullscreen hack on Windows 7 that you try for an hour before uninstalling. It's a goofy design decision, schizophrenic. Yes, I agree with you that you can learn to live with it. But that does not mean it's not an inconvenience and hindrance to the user.
I've looked at features of Start8 and RetroUI and those look like decent replacements. Boot to desktop, disable hotcorners, either similar style of start menu as windows 7 or an updated look if you want, etc. RetroUI even lets you put Metro style fullscreen apps inside a window (which I don't care about, but someone might). And only $5 (I haven't checked out open source replacements yet).
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Curious as to what apps/utilities the start screen doesn't have. Anything I was able to think of shows up. Do you have any examples?
There are definitely some hidden menus, such as Win+X, which brings up a bunch of system shortcuts, including the Run menu (which is still accessible by hitting Win+R). The idiosyncrasies in the OS aren't enough to diminish my enjoyment or productivity.
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Probably the Win+X stuff as you mention, the shutdown menu, etc. Sure you can get to it, but it's difficult to find for new users and your average user.
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I agree with the OP. Windows 8 is actually very nice. What new features other than metro/modern ui? Well this may seem small, but i find it really useful. The new advanced menu, which you right click where the start menu corner is and it opens up a menu to go right to add/remove programs, disk management, event viewer, command prompt, command prompt (admin rights), run, task manager, device manager, system manager, search and more.
I find this very useful and it makes windows more enjoyable. If you also have
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Yes, but we're not the average users are we?
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Probably true. But you have to go and do extra legwork to get some third party UI programs to make the desktop more usable. It's so extremely inexpensive though that I'm a bit tempted, just to get what is essentially Windows 7 SP2.
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The desktop isn't crippled at all in my usage. The only difference is the lack of the start menu; however, the start screen duplicates all the functionality I ever used, and provides more space for search results.
Why would we switch? (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you (or has your business?) moved to Windows 8?
I don't know why we would switch. Vista was such a shit show that Windows 7 was a blessing, but Windows 8 just seems to do nothing better than Windows 7 on a desktop compter (which is my primary use at home and at work) so why would I spend the money upgrading? I don't even want to pirate Windows 8 for my home computer just to play around. Used it a few times and I didn't like it, and I'm dreading not having Windows 7 included with our new computers.
Re:Why would we switch? (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you (or has your business?) moved to Windows 8?
At our company, which has well over 30,000 PCs deployed, >90% of our systems are still on Windows XP. Who are you kidding? Who is Microsoft kidding? If it ain't broke, don't upgrade it
And before the bleeding edge fanboys... hell, before the slightly-bruised-edge fanboys get up in arms about whatever technical features there are that makes Win 7 a superior OS than XP (and I'm sure there are numerous examples), most organizations of our size suffer from the "Battlestar 78" problem. Our IT environment can only move forward as fast as the slowest mission-critical legacy app. When your biz ops/reg compliance/contractual obligs depend on a niche application that is not yet certified for IE 8, then the revenue-creating side of the company doesn't want to hear squat about group policy optimizations, memory management, or whatever.
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At our company, which has well over 30,000 PCs deployed, >90% of our systems are still on Windows XP. Who are you kidding? Who is Microsoft kidding? If it ain't broke, don't upgrade it
And before the bleeding edge fanboys... hell, before the slightly-bruised-edge fanboys get up in arms about whatever technical features there are that makes Win 7 a superior OS than XP (and I'm sure there are numerous examples), most organizations of our size suffer from the "Battlestar 78" problem. Our IT environment can only move forward as fast as the slowest mission-critical legacy app. When your biz ops/reg compliance/contractual obligs depend on a niche application that is not yet certified for IE 8, then the revenue-creating side of the company doesn't want to hear squat about group policy optimizations, memory management, or whatever.
I am not a programmer or an IT guy, I am only a power user...the kind of guy that remember spending the 80s squabbling to get the latest and greatest, the 90s fine tuning whatever was coming, and the 2000 trying to keep still and not be noticed when IT got round to changing computers... "yes, officer, I guarantee that my PC has been upgraded last week."
Now I am a partner in a small company, we have win xp, and do not care to upgrade. why should I? we have one Win 7 machine, and it works just fine, now tha
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I respect that you think windows 8 seems to do nothing better than windows 7 on a desktop but I really hope you give windows 8 a try because it actually does improve the desktop experience in many ways.
There is a new right click menu called the "advanced menu" Basically you right click the start button corner and a menu pops up with options to go straight to add/remove programs, control panel, command prompt, command prompt(admin rights), disk management, event viewer and much more. It allows you to get to
Moved over (Score:2)
Moved to Windows 8 on all of my machines (Home, Work and Laptop) as well as moved both of my parents over from XP to 8.
Really like it so far. It does appear to be a lot faster on my machines. I don't really use metro on my desktop machines, but I use it almost exclusively on my laptop as I mostly just use my laptop for web browsing any way.
My dad really likes 8, my mom doesn't care either way, I'm just glad to get her off of Windows XP and use that as an excuse to get her out of Outlook Express and Palm Des
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Palm Desktop still works fine on Windows 8 - even syncs.
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Yes it does but she no longer has a Palm device (she switched to the iPhone about a year or two ago) and was stuck on version 4 of the software. She was just using Palm desktop at that point to look up old contacts and notes she had made just I just used the move as an opportunity to just put everything in the same place in Outlook.
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Hearing anecdot
Our Experience (Score:5, Informative)
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Windows 8 is is designed for better hardware. If she were buying a touch enabled ultrabook then it would be a test case. Microsoft shouldn't have allowed 8 on an inexpensive laptop in 2012.
Re:Our Experience (Score:5, Interesting)
I was at a Microsoft event earlier this week and there was a session on design for Windows 8 across the various platforms and it answered a lot of questions I had been scratching my head about. It's clear over the next few years that Microsoft is aiming to design a single UI across all of it's platforms from Phone, to Desktops, to tablets, to TV. They want it to all be the same experience. Part of that is the expectation that going forward devices will all have touch screens from the phone to the desktop. They want to fundamentally change how all applications function to their new model, which from a purely design perspective has some merits. It's also I think banking on the idea that websites as we think of them today are going away being replaced by single use apps.
Problem is it's their new design philosophy is completely different from what people have come to expect. For instance, Windows 8 Metro apps are to scroll horizontal instead of vertical. (unless it's a phone app then it's vertical). Tool bars are supposed to go off screen until you use some kind of mouse/keyboard/touch gesture. Don't include functionality in your app that can be done by another app via contracts. And that is going to through a lot of people who aren't creative types, especially businesses. Most people get into their routine and don't want change. And the fact it's going to be a while, if ever, before existing applications update to this new design guidelines. So it's going to be a disjointed experience between old and new for a couple years.
Apple figured out that while iOS and OSX share many of the same technical underpinnings, they made the UI and design standards different. The desktop functions the same way OSX has for the past 10 years and iOS is different. People don't expect OSX to behave like iOS and vice versa.
Android really only has to worry about mobile devices with tablets and phones being their only two product lines.
Microsoft had a chart: there are about 700M Windows 7 devices and within x months they expect there will be 500M Windows 8 devices. Android's number was around 350M devices and Apple about 200M devices. (Now there are some problems there because what counts as "Android". I mean Kindle devices run a version of Android, but not exactly as they have their own SDK etc. So does that still count as "android". Also Android is starting to show up on other devices such as cameras and I'd imagine inside of TV's before long.)
Re:Our Experience (Score:5, Insightful)
Part of that is the expectation that going forward devices will all have touch screens from the phone to the desktop.
And that they expect desktop systems to be touchscreen-centric is where they've completely lost their minds. Touchscreens can only work as a main input system in situations where you aren't holding your arm away from your body.
Problem is it's their new design philosophy is completely different from what people have come to expect.
I disagree. The problem is that core elements (not all) of their new design philosophy are unpleasant to use in common use cases. Touchscreen on desktops is the big example.
Most people get into their routine and don't want change.
True to an extent. And really, why should they? Change for change's sake is just as bad as failing to change when it's beneficial to do so. But people will change when there is a very clear benefit to doing so. Win 8 has two problems in this regard: it's a huge change, and (on the desktop) there is no readily perceivable benefit to making it -- at least not one that is big enough to counterbalance the pain of the change.
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The desktop functions the same way OSX has for the past 10 years and iOS is different. People don't expect OSX to behave like iOS and vice versa.
And then they reverse the mousewheel direction for no reason at all, and turned scrollbars to invisible so that even on a 30" screen you have to "try to scroll" to figure out whether there is more content or not, or where you are in a document.
Fortunately you can still fix these things with settings, but really, Apple is merrily going full steam ahead towards conve
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It's clear over the next few years that Microsoft is aiming to design a single UI across all of it's platforms from Phone, to Desktops, to tablets, to TV. They want it to all be the same experience.
Microsoft is delusional, in the past Microsoft tried to force a desktop interface onto a mobile device and it was painful, now they are trying to put a mobile device interface onto a desktop computer and that is painful again.
Will they ever learn?
I have been using Windows 8 as an experiment for a few months now. It is workable if you put classic shell on but if I had Windows 7 I would just stick with that.
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And why the hell is she using the Metro apps at all?
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What about WP8? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't criticize MS for trying something different. It is a bold move. But, what they are putting out ISN'T the solution to the problem. They just can't figure out what to do it seems.
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Windows 8 at work? (Score:2)
Maybe (Score:2)
Ignore NPD reports (Score:4, Insightful)
While The PA Report post [penny-arcade.com]deals specifically with games and how they are just not tracked properly by NPD, the same principle applies to any software: the retail store aspect of sales is small and getting smaller every day. Ignore NPD, they really don't matter anymore.
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Not at all. Polling is a statistically valid methodology when you have random selection. Without random selection, there is no assurance that you are taking a representative sample.
What your comment fails to take into account is that different types of people are more likely to buy things through different channels. People who mostly buy through retail tend to be less tech savvy than people who mostly buy through Internet channels. Therefore, you would expect statistically significant differences in the
My Business Customers say "Windows 7" (Score:2, Informative)
When offering Windows 8 Pro to business customers that were replacing old crotchety XP machines one customer said "we'll pay an extra $100 for Windows 7 if necessary. But, we don't want Windows 8". I'm not seeing much love for 8 from customers, even though I use it and like it.
That's not what the report says at all. (Score:5, Informative)
They also have a very strange definition of "four weeks on the market" as the period they're looking at is Oct 22, 2012 - Nov 14 2012... which includes 5 days prior to Windows 8 being released. With Microsoft selling about 1.5M licenses a day in these initial weeks, 5 days where sales are practically zero is a lot to include in the data.
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It was most probably four weeks since wholesalers / resellers could order Win8 devices.
They were embargoed... you could order them, stock them, just not sell them until the release date.
Some Anecdotal Data (Score:2)
It was also funny because one machine bought had a special upgrade coupon to MS Windows 8(which is superflous
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Re:Some Anecdotal Data (Score:5, Informative)
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No, you can't always downgrade. If you get a new PC with Windows 8 home version you can not downgrade (legally). You'd need a full version of Windows 7 to do so.
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Well, I did purchase a new desktop in late October. I didn't really need one now but it dawned on me it was my last chance to get something without UEFI, and with Windows 7 license. I may stick Windows 8 on it anyway, but definitely there was a small background feeling of "omg don't get stuck with vista!" feeling that made me buy it soon instead of waiting until I really needed a replacement.
Yes (Score:2)
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Yes, it does seem a lot like the missing Service Pack 2 along with a UI change and a Metro remora hanging onto the side.
Shocking. (Score:3)
I was going to post some anecdotes demonstrating how little I care about Windows 8 but then I realized I just didn't care enough to.
I partially blame OEMs (Score:2)
Some of the blame rests with OEMs on this. The entire OS is only really usable with a touch screen. Very few makers are including touch these days, except on tablets or on the very high end. Screen digitizers have never been cheaper, so why leave it out?
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OEMs take what Microsoft doles out and they say "thank you, sir, may we have another". Really, there's not a lot of options for an OEM except to go with Windows 8. Even if they can get Windows 7 as cheaply as Windows 8 they know that they have to put machines in the stores running Windows 8 so that they'll sell (online sellers have more options presumably, but with extra cost to support both).
Why wouldn't I? (Score:2)
It's slightly faster than Win7, still runs all my apps, and has much better battery life. Those things alone are enough to get me to move to it, although I've been using it since beta. I'm basically using it like Win7 with a different Start Menu. I don't find it "jarring", and the fact that it's customisable to let me move all my most frequently used things close means it's actually better than the old start menu anyway. For my really frequently used stuff I pin them to the taskbar anyway, just like I u
The headline before this (Score:2)
Vista all over again (Score:5, Interesting)
XP showed that people were happy keeping on OS for a very long time on their machines.
Windows 7 is working for a lot of people who are using it. They've got no real motivation as the home user to switch. It's still new, and most of them probably expect they could get the life of their machine out of it.
Windows 8 will be the skip version then Microsoft will come to their senses and gives us another regular version of windows next.
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Steam will not have the whole library for linux, but all the source games will likely work and many others. Probably the same fraction that works on OSX.
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Steam on linux is going to start with valve engine games. It may eventually port most of its collection. But its more likely that NEW steam games will support linux, while the older ones are allowed to continue as windows/mac exclusive.
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Steam on linux is going to start with valve engine games.
Probably a lot of games that are already Linux native, [lgdb.org]* too.
OT: Perhaps this is just my sophomoric side showing, but when I see the acronym L.G.D.B., Linux games are not what immediately spring to mind...
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Re:tanking (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think this is quite correct. Win8 isn't single-handedly tanking the entire PC market; it's helping keep it depressed, sure, but it's not the only factor. There's two more factors:
1) mobile devices, including iPads. Lots of people just want to read and write vapid comments on Facebook all day long, and iPads are much smaller and more convenient than laptops (or desktops) for doing this.
2) the lack of progress in hardware and software overall. PCs really aren't significantly faster now than they were 5 or more years ago. It's not like the late 90s when everything was doubling in speed or size every 12-18 months; everything's hit a wall. Mfgrs are more worried now about energy efficiency than speed. A brand-new computer will not seem any faster, running a web browser, spreadsheet, etc. than a 5-year-old PC. As a result, people just aren't upgrading any more, unless their software requires it. Of course, this might not apply to certain applications (namely high-end games), but those are a small fraction of the market. There's tons of people now chugging along just fine with 10-year-old PCs running XP.
and of course 3) the economy sucks and tons of people are out of work.
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Not entirely true. Restaurant POS systems already are giant touch screens running Windows.
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At $40 to upgrade, it's 1/3 the price of the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade when it first came out.
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I was forced to due to a laptop failure - what a pile of crap. 2 days later, I still can't browse the internet (I can ping the sites but IE10 refuses to load anything - and yes, I know I can transfer FF over at any time via USB, I just want to see how long it'll take to load getfirefox.com lol). I also can't search, it either brings up everything or nothing.
Just waiting on a free key to upgrade to Windows 7