The Windows 8 Sales Data Is In, And It's Horrible News For Microsoft

Business Insider ^ | 11/30/2012 | Nicholas Carlson

[SeekAndFind]

NPD research published some horrible news for Microsoft yesterday.

* Despite releasing an entirely new operating system on October 22 of this year, Windows PC sales shrank 21% between 10/21 and 11/17 versus the same period last year.

* Windows 8 tablet sales during that period were "almost nonexsistent" – just 1% of all Windows 8 sales.

“It hasn’t made the market any worse, but it hasn’t stimulated things either,” Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD, told the New York Times. “It hasn’t provided the impetus to sales everybody hoped for.”

No kidding.

Yesterday, we reported other bad news:

Asus CFO David Chang's comment that "demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now."

Microsoft cut its order of Surface tablets for the year to two million units, down from four million.

This is a very scary time for Microsoft.

[redangus]

Loaded 8 on an Acer convertible tablet that came with 7. It was dog using 7, much improved with 8. Boots quicker, touch screen more sensitive, icon are alright. You can go to a classic desk top if desired. Probably wouldn’t like the icons on a desktop or non touch laptop. The full Win 8 will probably be well received on a full, work ready tablet.

[tacticalogic]

Like I said earlier, nobody buys an OS for the OS, they buy it for the apps. You can try to draw a bright line between the server and desktop OS, and between infrastructure apps like Exchange, AD and Sharepoint, and the desktop apps, but it’s not that simple. Look at Active Directory - only a Windows machine can be properly joined to an AD domain.

[Paleo Conservative]

Installing an SSD to replace your computer’s system hard drive will make Windows 7 boot with similar speed. You can even buy drives on Newegg.com with a drive cloning kit that includes software and a USB to SATA converter that allows you to connect the new drive externally while the contents of the original system drive are copied.

[driftdiver]

“I’m surprised Microsoft has been so successful considering their track record.”

What track record is that? The one of owning 85% of the OS market share?

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

I want to replace my old WIN desktop which I run off a router from my new WIN laptop and I want to buy a new I MAC desktop computer after the holidays. As a probable newbie to a MAC purchase and set-up I have a question.

Question: Will my current router running off of my Windows machine work with a MAC? Or do I have to get another router?

I am used to seeing Macs and Windows PCs running off the same router without incident.

But Swordmaker is the Apple guru around here . . .

[Vigilanteman]

Sounds a LOT like Sony, a company whom I used to work for. Their per share value was around $42 when I left and around $10 the last time I checked. Fortunately, I only kept about 30 shares for sh*ts and giggles when I left them.

Their former CEO (finally replaced in April) Howard Stringer was sort of a cross between Ballmer’s bean counting me-too management style and Obama's brown-nosing/egotistical management style. I'm glad he's gone but think that a once great company is still on a very long road to recovery. Damn shame, too, when you consider what a great technology leader Sony once was.

[The Duke]

I'll be buying myself a tablet for work later this year. I'm not huge MS fan, but the fact that the tablet comes with MS Office installed and a nice keyboard solution is going to cause me to give the Surface serious consideration.

As I understand it with the push of a button I can convert from the new Windows 8 "dumbed down" interface back to the Windows 7 interface - I don't mind clicking one button one time.

I'm also going to give the Kindle Fire serious consideration. What I like about that tablet is that it is "media centric" and integrates nicely with all the amazing Amazon services (I really enjoy using Amazon's "cloud player" for music - very nice!) Ip

[jonno]

Agree with you both...

For those who see computing as a “fashion statement” - or entertainment, sure, always jump in on on the latest fad.

For those of us who use our computers as TOOLS, we select that which:
1) is cost effective
2) is comfortable to use
3) most efficiently and effectively gets the job done

Like an old pair of jeans - or my favorite framing hammer...

[9YearLurker]

I bought an Asus laptop this week, purposely with Windows 7 on it though most machines are coming with 8 now.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I was forced onto Windows 8 by the sudden failure of a previous Microsoft product.

My opinion of this operating system is that it’s perfect for people under 30.

That’s because it is at least 80% designed for playtime.

I have tiles all over what used to be my desktop for photos, videos, SKYPE, an eBay app, etc. I have blinking scrawls giving me sports headlines, the current temperature in Sydney, travel deals and the latest pop-culture trending headlines on Bing.

Microsoft Word? Excel? That takes some digging.
If I were a business user paying for this OS for my employees I’d be very upset.

[rbg81]

Before that happens the baseline computing knowledge of the general population will have to increase substantially.

---

In a way the opposite is happening. As people use computers more, they know less and less about them. Someone who bought a PC circa 1990 had to be much more of an expert on how to configure them than someone today. Software designers have made computing devices and applications increasingly easy to use and foolproof. That insulates the masses from the underlying complexity of the systems.

[oh8eleven]

Installing an SSD to replace your computer’s system hard drive will make Windows 7 boot with similar speed.
Agreed, but SSDs are still very expensive. Hard to justify versus waiting a minute for a boot.

[cableguymn]

I gave winblows 8 a chance. installed it on an old dual core. Once I ditched metro for startback8 I liked it alright. I had just finished building my I7 so I formatted the old dual core machine and set about installing 8 on my new machine.

it would not activate because it was installed on another computer before.

Windows 8 ties it’s self to the motherboard. Once installed on a PC it’s not to be installed EVER again on another pc.

I put windows 7 on my new pc using the licenses off the old dual core that now has 8 on it again.

I’ll keep 8 around because I am in the tech field and I am going to have to learn it.

I won’t be buying any more copies.

[cableguymn]

I bought mine for 15 bucks. I over paid.

[No.6]

Sure ... with the preview copy.

For retail Win8, if you bought it pre-installed on a PC, it’s motherboard-bound. If not (like the download copy), it’s emphatically not.

http://www.zdnet.com/how-the-new-windows-8-license-terms-affect-you_p2-7000003028/

[9YearLurker]

Vista was terrible! Windows 7 has been their best of the decade.

[P.O.E.]

I’ve been extremely p.o.’ed at Microsoft since they “re-imagined” Excel.

Used to be able to whiz through complex analyses, now I waste time looking for the buried third- or fourth-level button I need.

Hope they go broke.

[9YearLurker]

I think applications compatibility is something people aren’t going to want to deal with with 8 until as late as they possibly can.

[Dr. Sivana]

Nobody buys an OS for the OS. They buy the OS for the apps.

Not always. A fair number of Mac users prefer the MacOS even though 99% of their work is in the same Adobe Suite that is available for Windows.

Also, if you consider Windows 3.1 to be an operating system, it sold quite well even though the only major apps available for it early on were Word, Excel and PageMaker. Most folks were mainly playing solitaire on it, as they were still locked into 1-2-3, WordPerfect or Multimate, and didn't use PageMakwer.

[oh8eleven]

Vista was terrible!
I've been running Vista on a Dell PC and a Dell laptop for over five years ... no problems.
Why do you call it terrible?