Five reasons why Windows 8 has failed

Five reasons why Windows 8 has failed

Summary: The numbers are in and they don't lie. Windows 8 market adoption numbers are well behind Microsoft's greatest previous operating system failure, Vista.

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Between the Lines
March 4, 2013 -- 18:46 GMT (10:46 PST)


Windows fans will whine, but Net Applications' desktop operating systems numbers don't lie. Windows 8's pathetic user adoption numbers can't even keep up with Vista's lousy numbers.

Windows 8 usage can't even keep up with Vista/s poor numbers. (Data from Net Applications)

The numbers speak for themselves. Vista, universally acknowledged as a failure, actually had significantly better adoption numbers than Windows 8. At similar points in their roll-outs, Vista had a desktop market share of 4.52% compared to Windows 8's share of 2.67%. Underlining just how poorly Windows 8's adoption has gone, Vista didn't even have the advantage of holiday season sales to boost its numbers. Tablets--and not Surface RT tablets--were what people bought last December, not Windows 8 PCs.

Windows 8, and its relatives Windows Phone 8 and RT, make no impression at all in the smartphone and tablet markets. (Credit: Net Applications)

Windows 8's failure is actually greater than it appears. The tablet and phone markets in 2007 were next to non-existent. Now, in a market where NPD expects tablets to out sell notebooks by year's end, neither Windows 8 nor its cousins Windows RT and Windows Phone 8 even appear on NetApplication's mobile and tablet reports for February 2013. How bad is that? Android 1.6, with is tiny 0.02% of the market, does make the list.

I predicted that Windows 8 would be dead on arrival last year, but it's flopping even more than I thought it would be. So, why has Windows 8 been such a failure? Here's my list:

see full report

 

[Hopachi]

Very nice comparison, Hippsie!

Looks better, BUT the second one needs more maintenance even from the house perspective. Look where it's placed: I love nature, but you need to cut down the bushes and trees pretty often to stop the jungle from taking over in the house.

Thanks, Hopachi. Actually Falling Water is practically maintenance free. made of natural stone, concrete, and steel. You may have to do some tree trimming and flower bed care, but there isn't a lawn.

That house was completed in 1938. It looks like it was built yesterday to me.

1938, we can't even get a builder in Australia to make a house last 5 years. I went to a village in Holland where all the houses were 200 years old as were the roads, I thought it was a new estate. The only difference between the old bricks and new bricks was that they were longer and the roads were better than any modern road.

Yes it's an architectural marvel.
1938 was when they built good stuff. Stone is very long lasting (thousands of years), reinforced concrete (became standard after 1960's) lasts less (hundreds of years) because the corroding steel will expand and crack open the concrete.

Stone or brick is the way to go, avoid wood.


The initial comparison with Win8 was nice to see: you make it look very innovative and solid. Let's hope the 'corroded steel' doesn't happen too fast here: for instance Win8 was very fast even after many installations here. But the Start Screen take longer to show up and doesn't let me click the Desktop only after a delay (still investigating this one).

Cheers
Hopachi

 

[Ray8]

...reinforced concrete (became standard after 1960's) lasts less (hundreds of years) because the corroding steel will expand and crack open the concrete.

Stone or brick is the way to go, avoid wood.

I don't think that's quite correct:

The Secrets of Ancient Rome

Concrete Structures Could Last 16,000 Years

Timber Frame Houses | How To Build a House That Will Last 200+ Years

House of Bethlehem in Schwyz, built in 1287, is the oldest wooden dwelling in Europe. - swissinfo.ch

 

[electrotune1200]

...reinforced concrete (became standard after 1960's) lasts less (hundreds of years) because the corroding steel will expand and crack open the concrete.

Stone or brick is the way to go, avoid wood.

I don't think that's quite correct:

It's correct, because Rome didn't use reinforced concrete.

It's stronger, but doesn't have the longevity.


And to keep the thread on topic, Windows 8 is alright in my books, and not necessarily a failure.

 

[Hopachi]

...reinforced concrete (became standard after 1960's) lasts less (hundreds of years) because the corroding steel will expand and crack open the concrete.

Stone or brick is the way to go, avoid wood.

I don't think that's quite correct:

It's correct, because Rome didn't use reinforced concrete.

It's stronger, but doesn't have the longevity.


And to keep the thread on topic, Windows 8 is alright in my books, and not necessarily a failure.

No steel, no corrosion.

But we should remain on topic.

 

[labeeman]

Another OEM dumps Windows RT.

Samsung to halt Windows RT tablet sales in Germany - Computerworld

 

[jimbo45]

...reinforced concrete (became standard after 1960's) lasts less (hundreds of years) because the corroding steel will expand and crack open the concrete.

Stone or brick is the way to go, avoid wood.

I don't think that's quite correct:

It's correct, because Rome didn't use reinforced concrete.

It's stronger, but doesn't have the longevity.


And to keep the thread on topic, Windows 8 is alright in my books, and not necessarily a failure.

Hi there.

I think W8 is actually going in the right direction if you look at FUTURE hardware developments rather than dying Dinosaur technology.

Samsung is for the moment going with Android -- no surprise there -- and I do think Ms made a mistake in releasing the RT BEFORE the surface pro. Normally you release your flagship product - then your cheaper and less featured models.

But BTW :

Not sure Brick would be a good idea in California -- especially for small buildings like individual houses. The Earth even when no earthquakes are actually felt is always moving and brick would fall apart quite quickly. Wood can easily be replaced and is reasonably pliable so small shifting earth movements won't damage the house too quickly. Wood has longevity too if you pick the right wood and treat it properly. It's also much more environmentally friendly than brick as well.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[HippsieGypsie]

MS is certainly headed in the correct direction. Times have changed and will change again.

I see some interest in architecture here. Shall I start a thread in the lounge on this topic?

 

[Night Hawk]

MS is certainly headed in the correct direction. Times have changed and will change again.

I see some interest in architecture here. Shall I start a thread in the lounge on this topic?

What you don't seem to be able to realize is that there will always be a need for the desktop platform to perform various tasks that cannot be performed on any tablet or IPad! What MS actually did was "short change" the desktop users in favor of their new Surface Tablets and Windows RT sales. "Let's make the desktop releases look the same!" was someone's lame idea for marketing a new version without development involved with the desktop platform side of things. Instead they simply slapped the RT gui on just like that.

There is no "this is the way of the future!" crapola but actual reality of a marketing decision to compete with Googlelitis and the Fruit company at the same time. The simple fact is that the desktop user got taken for a joy ride! The Aero as well as media features were stripped out of an updated 7 core and labeled 8 after slapping a tablet gui on rather then work on any new version of the desktop itself. "CUTTING CORNERS!" is not any form of Progressive Development for the desktop platform.

 

[chrisa]

MS is certainly headed in the correct direction. Times have changed and will change again.

I see some interest in architecture here. Shall I start a thread in the lounge on this topic?

What you don't seem to be able to realize is that there will always be a need for the desktop platform to perform various tasks that cannot be performed on any tablet or IPad! What MS actually did was "short change" the desktop users in favor of their new Surface Tablets and Windows RT sales. "Let's make the desktop releases look the same!" was someone's lame idea for marketing a new version without development involved with the desktop platform side of things. Instead they simply slapped the RT gui on just like that.

There is no "this is the way of the future!" crapola but actual reality of a marketing decision to compete with Googlelitis and the Fruit company at the same time. The simple fact is that the desktop user got taken for a joy ride! The Aero as well as media features were stripped out of an updated 7 core and labeled 8 after slapping a tablet gui on rather then work on any new version of the desktop itself. "CUTTING CORNERS!" is not any form of Progressive Development for the desktop platform.

With that said... a) they needed to go convertible and in a bad way(RT, not so much, or at least it should have been in a smaller Mini type form factor), the numbers off convertibles will prove that out and b) Microsoft isn't Apple, they aren't going to abandon the desktop PC like a child on the side of the road like Apple is doing with the Mac.

What i'd really like to see is Samsung get together with Microsoft and Intel and simply put out the Teraflop PC for Power Users with like 10 TB of hard drive space that can be clouded for your devices running Windows Server 2012 and watch the Macheads go screaming into the night. Someone is going to do it, you could probably sell them to colleges pretty easy for academia and there is a small segment of PC users that would buy it simply for hobby and bragging rights. The same segment that drops $2k on a video card just so they can run the latest version of Crysis at max settings.

 

[labeeman]

What i'd really like to see is Samsung get together with Microsoft and Intel and simply put out the Teraflop PC for Power Users with like 10 TB of hard drive space that can be clouded for your devices running Windows Server 2012 and watch the Macheads go screaming into the night. Someone is going to do it, you could probably sell them to colleges pretty easy for academia and there is a small segment of PC users that would buy it simply for hobby and bragging rights. The same segment that drops $2k on a video card just so they can run the latest version of Crysis at max settings.

Don't hold your breath on that one.

Samsung to halt Windows RT tablet sales in Germany - Computerworld

 

[Night Hawk]

Samsung stills want to maintain a multiple platform strategy as the article there points out but is not wishing to uphere to the new licensing issues that MS is bringing in. The concern is also based on pricing for the same hardwares where the Android models are sold for far less. Samsung is making a marketing decision based on the only reason for the RT is to run Office 2013 and not for any other reason software wise.

The Ativ Tab is available from $780 at Amazon Germany. For that money consumers get a 1.5GHz dual core Qualcomm processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB internal memory and a 5 megapixel camera. The 32GB iPad, for example, is available for $429.

Otherwise, there are "no compelling reasons" to choose an RT tablet, besides maybe the availability of Microsoft Office 2013, Wood said. Even with Microsoft's own RT tablet, the Surface, most of the excitement was about the hardware and not the software, Wood added.

 

[chrisa]

What i'd really like to see is Samsung get together with Microsoft and Intel and simply put out the Teraflop PC for Power Users with like 10 TB of hard drive space that can be clouded for your devices running Windows Server 2012 and watch the Macheads go screaming into the night. Someone is going to do it, you could probably sell them to colleges pretty easy for academia and there is a small segment of PC users that would buy it simply for hobby and bragging rights. The same segment that drops $2k on a video card just so they can run the latest version of Crysis at max settings.

Don't hold your breath on that one.

Samsung to halt Windows RT tablet sales in Germany - Computerworld

Haha.. what does that have to do with anything at all? Obviously you don't know Samsung if you think there is any market they wouldn't enter or be interested in, if they thought money could be made. They are a very fluid company, they can bring products to market and ultimately jettison them in no time. They can do something like RT and it barely registers on their bottom line. Putting out a motherboard would be nothing for them and Intel allready has the daughterboard and i'd assume a driver. Honestly, given its a daughterboard, you probably don't even need Microsoft or Samsung and could just go with Win 8 off a regular board/chip and simply provide the ability to cloud its storage to a personal network via Hadoop.

What they really would really need though is a DirectX type of API for Common Computations via Parallel Processing. So whereas DirectX handles everything graphical having to do with a game, a DirectP so to say would handle stuff like weather, advanced AI, any hardcore calculations not normally handled by the video system. You could calculate orbital trajectories in real time, gravity, basically advanced game physics.. just all sorts of wild stuff if you had a teraflop card you could offload those calculations to.

 

[Hopachi]

-- and I do think Ms made a mistake in releasing the RT BEFORE the surface pro. Normally you release your flagship product - then your cheaper and less featured models.

But BTW :

Not sure Brick would be a good idea in California -- especially for small buildings like individual houses. The Earth even when no earthquakes are actually felt is always moving and brick would fall apart quite quickly. Wood can easily be replaced and is reasonably pliable so small shifting earth movements won't damage the house too quickly. Wood has longevity too if you pick the right wood and treat it properly. It's also much more environmentally friendly than brick as well.

Yes the Pro needed attention first is what I believe. The thing is that RT was interesting as being the first ARM OS made by Microsoft. This has future all by itself if the ARM processors gain more market.

BTW:
The bricks do well on most environments but you're right about this one: deserts can sand-blast brick away and in salty - moisty airs they get eaten away by salt.

I see some interest in architecture here. Shall I start a thread in the lounge on this topic?

You're good to go, as you like it.