Windows 8 Off to an Awkward Start, Analyst Says

[SteelCity1981]

I don't know how many clients i have gotten calls from sp far asking me to put windows 7 on their new pc's that came with windows 8, This reminds me of Windows Vista all over again in terms of the amounts of downgrades i've already did to peoples pc's when they asked for Xp to be put back on their systems. Good for me i'm making profit off of MS's bad OSes. lol

 

[Guest]

Though many have said that the 40 Mil figure of Win 8 sales might be the licenses sold to manufacturers, the interesting part to check would be a break up...how many were upgrades/outright purchases vs how many were for WIN8 RT or any other non-pc device license bought by manufacturers
Something tells me a big chunk of those sales were for portable devices which doesnt give a true picture about the desktop market, so any comparision to WIN 7 launch(which was mostly pure desktop only) is very skewed.

 

[techguy911]

companies are just starting to upgrade from xp to 7 most of those sales of 8 are oem on machines sitting on store shelves. I make more money downgrading windows 8 to 7 than selling windows 8.
Btw there is problems with windows 8 and compatibility with alot of software and drivers.

 

[chewy1963]

[citation][nom]Bloob[/nom]There are basically no new models yet. Many of the OEMs have yet to ship any of their Win 8 models, even if there's been quite a bit of hype around them. Even the analyst in the article points that out.[/citation]

There are plenty of new models out with Win 8 on them. New Egg lists 139 different Win 8 models as I write this. That's just a cop out of MS's part.

 

[kellybean]

When you try and sell a turd as a good thing then....

 

[cknobman]

This article is bs and these "analysts" are full of sh!t.

Every retail outlet I have been too since late November has 90% of their computers on sale sporting Windows 8.

As for being confusing these analysts must be idiots. My 59-60 year old mom and dad (who are novice computer users at best) love their new Windows 8 laptop and learned the interface in less than a day.

 

[lothdk]

More than half of consumers are said to have not heard of Windows 8, while those who are aware of the platform not having an interest in the OS.

Then who bought those 40 million licenses?

 

[dxwarlock]

[citation][nom]cknobman[/nom]This article is bs and these "analysts" are full of sh!t.Every retail outlet I have been too since late November has 90% of their computers on sale sporting Windows 8.As for being confusing these analysts must be idiots. My 59-60 year old mom and dad (who are novice computer users at best) love their new Windows 8 laptop and learned the interface in less than a day.[/citation]

So that means its doing well? because they are selling them preinstalled with 8?
Every HP now is windows 8, windows 7 is not an option. And 2 family members got new PC's since then (i know, they got an HP..bad idea) but besides that. First thing they did was call me, ask me what was up with windows..and they was lost. And if I had their 'old' windows version to put back on.
In the IT world, EVERY SINGLE network admin I have to work with remotely, of course windows 8 and server 2012 come up asking if I like it, and if we plan on supporting it with our software out of curiosity. But not because they plan on using it, one of them are going to touch it with a 10 foot pole themselves.
More out of asking us if we are wasting time on developing for it.
And the commercial market dictates to a great extent an OS's success. If big companies like USA Today, Wall street Journal, Times Inc etc. aren't going to install it on one single PC in the building, or put 2012 on one single server they own..thats a bad indication other businesses like it have the same mentality.

I think you are confusing 'analysts must be idiots' with "I like it myself, and my vast sampling group of my 2 parents do too..so its doing fine..i think they are idiots"

 

[dxwarlock]

[citation][nom]cknobman[/nom]This article is bs and these "analysts" are full of sh!t.Every retail outlet I have been too since late November has 90% of their computers on sale sporting Windows 8.[/citation]
Also for this..it makes no sense of explaining how popular and well like windows 8 is..it just states they are selling it as default. They are getting kickbacks from MS for pushing it..its not because of 'demand" for it by buyers.
its like going "The customers have spoken, they love and cant get enough of default rims on cars, everyone I've seen for sale comes with stock rims and tires! That shows people must love it"

 

[DRosencraft]

[citation][nom]dxwarlock[/nom]So that means its doing well? because they are selling them preinstalled with 8? Every HP now is windows 8, windows 7 is not an option. And 2 family members got new PC's since then (i know, they got an HP..bad idea) but besides that. First thing they did was call me, ask me what was up with windows..and they was lost. And if I had their 'old' windows version to put back on. In the IT world, EVERY SINGLE network admin I have to work with remotely, of course windows 8 and server 2012 come up asking if I like it, and if we plan on supporting it with our software out of curiosity. But not because they plan on using it, one of them are going to touch it with a 10 foot pole themselves.More out of asking us if we are wasting time on developing for it.And the commercial market dictates to a great extent an OS's success. If big companies like USA Today, Wall street Journal, Times Inc etc. aren't going to install it on one single PC in the building, or put 2012 on one single server they own..thats a bad indication other businesses like it have the same mentality.I think you are confusing 'analysts must be idiots' with "I like it myself, and my vast sampling group of my 2 parents do too..so its doing fine..i think they are idiots"[/citation]

But I think that is exactly the problem. In your examples, everyone is avoiding 8 simply because they have no desire to try to learn something only slightly new, or have been scared off by the bad press. Whether Win 8 fails or not is not as important as the reason why it fails. If it fails because it is legitimately not at least as good as 7 after taking everything into account, then that's fine - it would be the same as those who stuck with Vista despite its rough start and negative image. But if it fails because people were simply scared off over relatively trite matters and a very loud chorus of negativity that is at least overblown if not misplaced, then that doesn't help anyone.

 

[dxwarlock]

Think you misinterpreted me saying they wasn't going to put it on any live boxes, and them not trying i, they have all tried it a lot using the companies MSDN accounts and a VM/ESXI setup. Many of them couldn't wait for it to show up for final release download to see what it was all about when finalized. Only to be disappointed and making a decision they are totally skipping 8 and 2012 for their company.
I myself tried my best to like it for 2 weeks, but in the end uninstalled it.
Its not a matter of trying it..they all did, didn't like it at all. And realized moving over to it would increase the helpdesk calls by about 10x from people trying to find how to do things they knew by instinct on every other version of windows.

 

[Guest]

I traded in my "Start" button for a "K" launcher in 2004 ;-D

 

[diddo]

W7 had 4% market share in global web usage stats (so we are talking of up&running machines, not unsold units in the distribution chain!) after 3 weeks form the release.

W8 (all versions combined) has 1% market share in same stats after 5 weeks from launch.

Plus, W8 has million of units of pre-orders, that means millions of dollars of liabilities in the distribution chain: at this rate of adoption will stay long times on shelf to testify the w8 failure and utterly hamper the recover of the Wintel sector.

Plus, W8 drained 1,5 billion dollars to MS Corporation in advertising.

Plus W8 is sold (or better, it is NOT sold even...) at 1/5 of the target price of the previous release!

It is one of the most epic failures ever conceived by mankind!

 

[Bloob]

[citation][nom]chewy1963[/nom]There are plenty of new models out with Win 8 on them. New Egg lists 139 different Win 8 models as I write this. That's just a cop out of MS's part.[/citation]
Plenty of old models loaded with Win8, sure. The ones designed for Win 8 ( all-in-ones, hybrids, etc. ), are largely not available for the general public to see and experience.

 

[programmermike]

"Despite the negativity surrounding Windows 8, Microsoft has sold 40 million licenses for the OS since its October 26 launch. Comparatively, 60 million Windows 7 licenses were sold during its first two months of sale."

Why would you compare two months of Windows 7 sales to one month of Windows 8? Are you deliberately trying to misinform people?

 

[cknobman]

[citation][nom]dxwarlock[/nom]So that means its doing well? because they are selling them preinstalled with 8? Every HP now is windows 8, windows 7 is not an option. And 2 family members got new PC's since then (i know, they got an HP..bad idea) but besides that. First thing they did was call me, ask me what was up with windows..and they was lost. And if I had their 'old' windows version to put back on. In the IT world, EVERY SINGLE network admin I have to work with remotely, of course windows 8 and server 2012 come up asking if I like it, and if we plan on supporting it with our software out of curiosity. But not because they plan on using it, one of them are going to touch it with a 10 foot pole themselves.More out of asking us if we are wasting time on developing for it.And the commercial market dictates to a great extent an OS's success. If big companies like USA Today, Wall street Journal, Times Inc etc. aren't going to install it on one single PC in the building, or put 2012 on one single server they own..thats a bad indication other businesses like it have the same mentality.I think you are confusing 'analysts must be idiots' with "I like it myself, and my vast sampling group of my 2 parents do too..so its doing fine..i think they are idiots"[/citation]

I was saying analysts are idiots in regards to this "However, analysts have criticized the platform for being confusing, as well as playing its part in ailing PC growth.".

My statement had nothing to do with how much I or my parents "like" Windows 8 and everything to do with the fact that Windows 8 is not confusing at all and if simpletons like my 60 year old parents can figure it out in a day than most people will be able to as well.

Corporate and consumer are vastly different worlds as well. If corporations choose not to implement Windows 8 that will have no impact on the consumer market. If 90% of the consumer PCs being sold from now on are going to have Windows 8 on them then it will eventually be dominant in the consumer market. That means that software companies and developers will create software for the platform and despite what all the analysts say Windows 8 wont be going anywhere.

 

[dxwarlock]

Your disregarding the difference between 'figure it out in a day' and "want to use it after figuring it out".
You seem to be making the "easy to figure out" equals "will like using it".

And corp and consumer are different. But your forgetting up to 40% of windows sales profits, and acceptance of an OS as successful is based off corp integration. They know that corps that implement the OS will be long term customers and support. They cant just 'jump to the next OS" at a whim like a consumer. Corp IS the deciding factor in the life of an OS. since they are usually the first adopters, and last to upgrade from an OS on a system wide level. MS has never declared an OS 'dead and old" until most corporations have moved from it..if very few even bother to go to windows 8..then you see the problem.

Corporations and business did play a big part in windows xp 64 bit being forgotten (none used it) and Vista situation..despite every PC coming out at the time ALSO having vista preinstalled (like windows 8). Businesses saw no reason to move to it because of its problems it caused them. Sure the consumers not liking it was also a major factor...but to dismiss up to 65% of an OS installs basis: corporation offices, server racks, and such as having no impact on its success is silly.

Now if you can point me to a large business eager to get the ball rolling on upgrading servers to 2012, and migrating its desktop users inhouse to windows 8 (like they did with XP, and server 2003) Then I will agree its doing well. But as its stands, I have yet to see ONE business even consider windows 8/2012 as anything but useless and 'skippable'.

 

[programmermike]

@ dxwarlock
It does not matter whether businesses switch to Windows 8 or not. More than likely, the said businesses are running XP now. So if they do make a switch, they would more than likely switch to the already proven Windows 7 OS. Large businesses do not make the switch to such a new OS.

 

[techy74]

It sounds to me like they are just jumping on the 'lets hate Windows 8' band wagon. Windows 7 never had a Tablet / surface sales to contend with. I think many of those 'surface' sales would make up the difference between 7 and 8 launch sales.

Lets not forget 1. many people skipped Vista and went to Windows 7 from XP (I know I did) and 2. when Windows 7 was released, the global finanical enonomy was much better than it is today.

 

[Guest]

...brief and simple -- win8 sucks on a pc...I have never encountered difficulties adapting to previous versions of windows but win8 has been almost the equivalent of intelllectual act of terror...I cannot believe that I had to go and download another program -- "start8" -- in order to just BEGIN to reach a configuration that I can manage...