Windows 8 sales fall short of Microsoft's internal projections

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  • Reply 21 of 187
    Wow, Microsoft has realized that the market is closing the door on them and they gave them a bunch of blocks to try to stop them.

    Microsoft did not ease use, they gave more problems.
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  • Reply 22 of 187
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    Window 8's biggest competitor isn't OSX - it's Windows 7. Whilst Windows 7 doesn't have the polish of OSX, it's stable, fast and familiar. It's good enough and so people are going to be reluctant to upgrade to any future OS, let alone one as radically different as Windows 8. WIndows 7 is the next XP and it's going to be around for a long time.

    Whoever decided to unify touch and mouse-driven UIs has made a big mistake in my opinion though. Windows 8 is a decent OS for PCs once you turn the Metro (sorry Modern) UI off and Windows 8 is pretty decent on tablets until you get past the Metro UI. I really hope that iOS and OSX don't merge in this way.
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  • Reply 23 of 187
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RichL View Post



    Whoever decided to unify touch and mouse-driven UIs has made a big mistake in my opinion though. 


     


    Whoever came up with that idea is probably the same people that came up with the idea of making a laptop/tablet hybrid that is worse at both things.


     


    I remember when the iPad first came out, some not too forward thinking people were saying that you should be able to hook up a mouse to it. These people didn't get it back then, and today, there are still people who just simply don't get it. There is no hope for such people.

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  • Reply 24 of 187


    Originally Posted by RichL View Post

    Whoever decided to unify touch and mouse-driven UIs has made a big mistake in my opinion though.


     


    I find myself occasionally wishing that I could touch the screen in OS X. I still find myself more often thanking that a cursor remains.


     


    I find myself never wishing that I had a mouse in iOS. And I'm always glad that I can touch.


     


    I find myself perpetually wishing that I could touch the screen in Windows 8. But I'm forced to use a mouse.


     


    The differences are interesting.

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  • Reply 25 of 187
    adonissmuadonissmu Posts: 1,776member
    MSFT is full of it.... Asus makes a Zenbook that is beautiful. MSFT has no one but itself to blame for the low upgrade rate of Windows users.
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  • Reply 26 of 187
    ai46ai46 Posts: 56member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacManFelix View Post


    Wouldn’t it be nice to read a piece that didn’t contain a reference to iOS 6 maps?



     


    Here's how it works.


     


    Biased report: "World comes to an end."


    Unbiased report: "World comes to an end, possibly caused by iOS 6 Maps app failure."


    Rinse, Repeat.

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  • Reply 27 of 187

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post


    And the slide into irrelevance continues. 


     


    MS is done. The competition's already run away with the market. It's a slow bleed that began years ago. All that money. All that R&D, with barely anything to show for it. Meanwhile Apple with only a fraction of MS' resources, has bitch-slapped them up and down the market for years now. 


     


    MS desperately needed Windows 8 and Windows Phone to be huge hits. That's not happening. MS knows how to generate cachet and "cool" like I know how to speak Aramaic. Not happening. MICROSOFT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND INTERFACE DESIGN. This has been the case since Day 1. It took Apple to get the ball rolling for the rest of the industry when it came to UI. This is a key point. MS is all red-tape, administration and colossal inefficiency. An enterprise solutions provider masquerading as a consumer tech company. 


     


    Not to mention that that Surface thing doesn't even know whether it's coming or going. 


     


    Windows Phone = dud


    Surface = dud


    Windows 8 = dud


     


    Sinofsky didn't leave because he was "hard to work with" or some nonsense like that. He was ALWAYS hard to work with, and yet he's been there forever. He was given the boot because someone at a higher level needed to take the fall for all this failure, because Ballmer sure as hell wasn't going to take any heat. Bet on that situation not lasting very long, though. 





    I disagree. Win 7 is pretty good. Maybe needs more polish all the way through, but its good and better than OS X in some ways. MS does get UI.


     


    I just installed Win 8 on my MacBook Pro. I like the interface. I like the look. But it is tricky navigating around. They need to work on that, but otherwise, Win 8 is fine and is refreshing to look at instead of OS X from time to time.


     


    Apple is very slow to adapt. Look at iOS. So slow. Google is running circles around Apple (and catching up/or exceeding in some areas). BTW, I prefer and love my iPhone 4S and can't wait for iPhone 5/6. I looked at Windows phone, but the hardware - nothing beats the iPhone now. And I hear the Windows phone is heavy partially due to coils for the inductive charging.


     


    These are not dud products.

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  • Reply 28 of 187


    Personally, I think this is Thurott trying to get some advertising hits on his site.  He becomes irrelevant when Windows becomes irrelevant.


     


    I think he's realized that any anti-MS  posting he makes drives his revenue up...;-)


     


    That said, I would have predicted sales to be low, for one and only one reason... iPad.  

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  • Reply 29 of 187

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by RichL View Post



    Window 8's biggest competitor isn't OSX - it's Windows 7. Whilst Windows 7 doesn't have the polish of OSX, it's stable, fast and familiar. It's good enough and so people are going to be reluctant to upgrade to any future OS, let alone one as radically different as Windows 8. WIndows 7 is the next XP and it's going to be around for a long time.

    Whoever decided to unify touch and mouse-driven UIs has made a big mistake in my opinion though. Windows 8 is a decent OS for PCs once you turn the Metro (sorry Modern) UI off and Windows 8 is pretty decent on tablets until you get past the Metro UI. I really hope that iOS and OSX don't merge in this way.


     agree.


     


    I'm currently consulting at 2 organizations just starting their Win7 conversions.  Over 40,000 desktops switching to Win7.  Win8 is still early adopter hell for corporations.  and of course, the only reason you would choose windows at home is because you're used to it at work or like what you have... neither of which is a reason to upgrade to Win8.


     


    My guess is OSX will eventually support iOS apps, but the UI will be distinctly OSX/touchpad.  and Mac apps will never evolve to iOS.  

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  • Reply 30 of 187
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,618member
    Windows 8 is a dud on desktop and its made a cluster**k of windows server 2012 too.
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  • Reply 31 of 187

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TogetherWeStand View Post


    'Instead, the thinking in Redmond, Wash., is said to be that PC makers have offered "lackluster" designs, along with limited availability.'


     


    That's right, instead of blaming your newly restyled OS, blame everyone else. Despite the hardware designs looking like their previous Win 7, & MacBook Air (inspired by Intel???) look-a-like counterparts.


     


    Every time I see a PC running Win 8, I think it looks like it's a toy aimed at young kids, with all those primary coloured blocks.



    Aren't all PC's of lackluster design? I suppose MS thinks the Surface is not lackluster. Need to only watch the sales numbers carefully (sales to customers not sales to distributors).

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  • Reply 32 of 187


    Got MY copy!.....  


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    See below...


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    Mmm, mmm, mmm...


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    see below...


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    just kidding!  wanted to see people react to thinking I was insane... image

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  • Reply 33 of 187

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pfisher View Post


     


    Apple is very slow to adapt. Look at iOS. So slow. Google is running circles around Apple (and catching up/or exceeding in some areas).



     


     


    When Apple stops absolutely dominating consumer satisfaction for every single iOS device they have ever released, then we can talk. 


     


    That's where the rubber hits the road. Google's problem is the Android interface (they've barely got even the basics of touch down), fragmentation, lack of optimization from device to device, and a lower-quality ecosystem. 


     


    Google and their OEMs have become volume-pushers. Until Android is brought all under one roof (never), the Android user experience will never equal Apple's. 


     


    As for PCs, those who have $1000 to spend are looking at Macs. Apple's captured the top-tier of the market. Macs also dominate in consumer satisfaction year after year, often by a very wide margin. 

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  • Reply 34 of 187
    bugsnwbugsnw Posts: 717member


    I read Thurrott's piece about Windows RT vs. Surface and it confused the hell out of me. There are tons of video reviews online that further illustrate the clumsiness of using 8. Funny that it looks pretty good as I walk by the PCs at Costco, but people are having a hard time relearning old habits.


     


    My son and I played around with the big box PCs and I was shocked at how flimsy and plasticky the hardware was. It looks cheap, yes. Wait till you start playing around with it. Type on it. Adjust the screen. Move the mouse. Ugh.

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  • Reply 35 of 187
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    ... Microsoft doesn't believe sales have been affected by the software itself. Instead, the thinking in Redmond, Wash., is said to be that PC makers have offered "lackluster" designs, along with limited availability....


     


    This is a bit rich since Microsoft itself has been unable to release what was supposed to be the flagship device for Windows 8, (the Surface Pro), and isn't expected to do so until January/February next year.  


    The Surface RT (which doesn't technically even run Windows 8 but instead runs Windows 8 RT), has itself also been reviewed as "lacklustre."  


     


    The irony is so high it threatens to explode the universe. 

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  • Reply 36 of 187
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,386member
    luxom3 wrote: »
    It's a BIG transition for PC owners. I remember when Apple went to OS X from OS 9 in the early 2000s.
    A LOT of people HATED OS X - because it meant buying ALL new software and OS X was REALLY buggy. I know - I was at HP using a Mac G3 Tower doing design work for HP.
    And then came the jump of OS X from G3/G4/G5 Macs to Intel Macs.
    So can't ring the death knell for Windows 8 quite yet.
    From the looks of it, all the pre-black Friday sales of Win8 PCs are pretty much sold out - I'm watching the Best Buy ones right now.
    This one will be a slow-upswing.

    Well, MS has about 1 Billion licenses of the variants of Windows (XP, Vista, 7, and now 8). Obviously, Apple can't have 1 Billion computers made within 12 months, but Apple could easiy see 10% of the current Windows users migrating to OS X. OS X is practically bug free, and it only take a couple of minor bug fixes to address those problems. if Apple sees 10% of Windows users switch to OS X laptops/desktops, that could more than double the current number of OS X users. It doesn't implausible for that to happen over the next 12 months. Apple just refreshed the line up, so we'll see what happens. there was a recent survey done by a market research firm and 10% thought that OS X was better, 58% don't plan on migrating to windows 8. That's a lot of potential windows users planning on leaving the platform and there aren't other options other than OS X.
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  • Reply 37 of 187


    Initial projections called for the sale of 11 copies, but the only sold 9 copies.  image

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  • Reply 38 of 187
    gazoobeegazoobee Posts: 3,754member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Apple ][ View Post


    ... I remember when the iPad first came out, some not too forward thinking people were saying that you should be able to hook up a mouse to it. These people didn't get it back then, and today, there are still people who just simply don't get it. There is no hope for such people.



     


    I remember when we were switching from command line interfaces to GUIs, and one of the arguments for always needing a DOS prompt was that for some things, using a mouse and the window GUI was awkward and slow.  The fact was though, there were even then, people who not only *could* do everything with the mouse and the GUI, they actually preferred it, and they could get things done just as fast.  those people eventually grew to be more numerous than the CLI guys.


     


    IMO history is repeating itself with touch interfaces. Everyone's trying to figure out how to use tablets by attaching keyboards and making special cases or in Microsoft's case, letting you use a mouse.  All the manufacturers are basically pushing what amounts to a hybrid or convertible laptop, (even if the keyboard is separate and communicates by bluetooth).  This is because the number of people who truly "get" the new form factor is still low (most are probably still kids right now) but as before, there are people who don't need or ever want an external keyboard or mouse and can get things done just as fast using only touch


     


    It seems likely to me that this group of "touch-only" users has a distinct advantage and will only grow in the future as more and more kids are brought up on this stuff.  


     


    Microsoft still hasn't seen this yet, or they just don't believe it if they have.  All the hybrid "it's sorta a tablet but also a PC" stuff is just a temporary stopgap.  the future is touch.


    Apple has leaped over them and they still haven't really grokked what's happened.  

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  • Reply 39 of 187
    quadra 610 wrote: »
    Not to mention that that Surface thing doesn't even know whether it's coming or going.

    Going. Definitely going...
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  • Reply 40 of 187
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Who wants to take bets on when and how big their layoffs will be.
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