Plummeting PC sales expose fiction of Windows 8 numbers

When major PC manufacturers report that first-quarter sales are down or flatlined, one has to wonder: Where are all the supposed Windows 8 licenses going?

Hewlett-Packard posted its quarterly results late last week, and the results paint yet another horrendous picture for the future of Windows. Lenovo posted first-quarter results last week as well, and while the picture from China isn't as dire, it's far from comforting. Windows 8 is in a nosedive, no matter how you look at it, in spite of Microsoft's remonstrations to the contrary.

Read more at: Plummeting PC sales expose fiction of Windows 8 numbers | Microsoft windows - InfoWorld

 

[Wenda]

I'd only recently purchased this machine when the Windows 8 CP was released, so I certainly won't be in the market for a new one at present. But when I do replace it, it will be with another top-end, powerful laptop with similar high-end specs. I'd like a new desktop machine too, but can't justify the spend at this time.

I did, however, go out and purchase Windows 8.

And, apart from a few minor things, I like it. I certainly won't be removing it to go back to Win 7 (I have that on my other machine).

So having bought the laptop less 14 months ago, and then having purchased Windows 8 in December (and with a desktop purchase planned in the next six months or so), I'd say I've done my bit to support both Microsoft/Windows 8 and the 'desktop'.


Wenda.

 

[XweAponX]

"When major PC manufacturers report that first-quarter sales are down or flatlined, one has to wonder: Where are all the supposed Windows 8 licenses going?
Hewlett-Packard posted its quarterly results late last week, and the results paint yet another horrendous picture for the future of Windows. Lenovo posted first-quarter results last week as well, and while the picture from China isn't as dire, it's far from comforting. Windows 8 is in a nosedive, no matter how you look at it, in spite of Microsoft's remonstrations to the contrary."...

It's what I have said before - Microsoft uses the numbers of Licenses sold to OEMs as a basis to tell us that those were how many actual "People" have bought Windows 8 - When in fact the systems are all in boxes on shelves, unsold.

Now, Tim Cook has said publicly that 85 Million iPhones have been sold - We know that they were sold to People, not Sprint, Verizon, ATT or Radio Shack!

 

[sgage]

This 'death of the desktop' will end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy unless people stop deliberately talking desktops down in favour of toys...oops, tablets and phones.

When the 'desktop. dies, so will home/hobby computing as we know it. We'll become a world of computer-illiterate Farce-bookers and Twits using low-powered devices with limited functionality in a walled-off system (we're already well on the way). And I really have no desire to be part of that kind of 'computing'.

To me, the big, powerful desktop or laptop equipped with powerful, functional software that I own the hard-copies of, and capable of 100% functionality without the need to be connected to the 'net, IS computing, I have no interest in a world of mobile content consumption or social networking. Take my desktop/laptop away, and you've taken away everything I love about computing. I may as well throw it away and go buy a book (and I probably will).

Wenda.

Wenda, I completely agree with everything you said.

 

[mart4494]

It's what I have said before - Microsoft uses the numbers of Licenses sold to OEMs as a basis to tell us that those were how many actual "People" have bought Windows 8 - When in fact the systems are all in boxes on shelves, unsold.

Now, Tim Cook has said publicly that 85 Million iPhones have been sold - We know that they were sold to People, not Sprint, Verizon, ATT or Radio Shack!

Who knows how MS count their 'sold' figures. For all any of us know the OEM's only make a payment once the pre-installed version is activated but MS count it as a sale before then. In the old days a sale was when you physically got paid for an item but not any more in the days of creative accountancy. Figure manipulation goes for just about every company operating today whatever field it's operating in. Doubt if my local PC superstore pays for anything until they've retailed it and got the money in the bank. But bet your bottom $ that the manufacturer is counting it as a sale as soon as the box goes on the back of the truck for delivery!!

What would be interesting is to find out (don't know how) just what the MS market share is today. Counting in those tablets I bet it's not over their 90% plus mark.

 

[Coke Robot]

This 'death of the desktop' will end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy unless people stop deliberately talking desktops down in favour of toys...oops, tablets and phones.

When the 'desktop. dies, so will home/hobby computing as we know it. We'll become a world of computer-illiterate Farce-bookers and Twits using low-powered devices with limited functionality in a walled-off system (we're already well on the way). And I really have no desire to be part of that kind of 'computing'.

To me, the big, powerful desktop or laptop equipped with powerful, functional software that I own the hard-copies of, and capable of 100% functionality without the need to be connected to the 'net, IS computing, I have no interest in a world of mobile content consumption or social networking. Take my desktop/laptop away, and you've taken away everything I love about computing. I may as well throw it away and go buy a book (and I probably will).

Wenda.

This is what I've never understood. Why all of a sudden a tablet PC isn't the same as a laptop hardware wise? There have been tablet PCs I believe now and before that are the SAME as a laptop. Even then, a laptop is NOWHERE in the ballpark on average on par with a desktop, not at all.

 

[Coke Robot]

I absolutely love this notion as well, that Lenovo has shipped such a plethora of Windows 7 machines that they are doing great whereas apparently other OEMs such as Dell that do the same with enterprise geared PCs aren't.

OS market share news

So someone explain how Windows 7's marketshare went up about a percent in the course of three months after Windows 8's release, and then back down?

Let the theories begin!

 

[Dogmatix]

Part of the problem is Microsoft programmers dictating to customers what they should like in terms of GUI look and feel. If W8 were to look and feel like W7 (all the way through; not just as far as Classic Shell goes) many more PC desktop users would consider upgrading. And if W8 were to be able to look and feel like XP, even more PC destop users - and especially big 'enterprise' users would be interested. I have XP both at home and at work, and whenever I have to work on my kid's PC, which runs W7, I get lost, and am glad to get back to my XP desktop. Trouble is, my employer will be switching to W7 in the summer, and I'm not looking forward to it. And when XP support dies next year, and XP then gets less and less secure, I don't know whether to bite the bullet and go to W7 or to jump ship to Linux. As I say, I've played around with my kid's W7 PC, and I cannot get to like it - I can't even get the taskbar area to look right (but that's for a different forum) - let alone W8.

 

[Wenda]

This 'death of the desktop' will end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy unless people stop deliberately talking desktops down in favour of toys...oops, tablets and phones.

When the 'desktop. dies, so will home/hobby computing as we know it. We'll become a world of computer-illiterate Farce-bookers and Twits using low-powered devices with limited functionality in a walled-off system (we're already well on the way). And I really have no desire to be part of that kind of 'computing'.

To me, the big, powerful desktop or laptop equipped with powerful, functional software that I own the hard-copies of, and capable of 100% functionality without the need to be connected to the 'net, IS computing, I have no interest in a world of mobile content consumption or social networking. Take my desktop/laptop away, and you've taken away everything I love about computing. I may as well throw it away and go buy a book (and I probably will).

Wenda.

This is what I've never understood. Why all of a sudden a tablet PC isn't the same as a laptop hardware wise? Not sudden, they never have been. There have been tablet PCs I believe now and before that are the SAME as a laptop. Nope. Low-end laptop, perhaps. Even then, a laptop is NOWHERE in the ballpark on average on par with a desktop, This one is. not at all.

Wenda.

 

[phillipduran]

This 'death of the desktop' will end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy unless people stop deliberately talking desktops down in favour of toys...oops, tablets and phones.

When the 'desktop. dies, so will home/hobby computing as we know it. We'll become a world of computer-illiterate Farce-bookers and Twits using low-powered devices with limited functionality in a walled-off system (we're already well on the way). And I really have no desire to be part of that kind of 'computing'.

To me, the big, powerful desktop or laptop equipped with powerful, functional software that I own the hard-copies of, and capable of 100% functionality without the need to be connected to the 'net, IS computing, I have no interest in a world of mobile content consumption or social networking. Take my desktop/laptop away, and you've taken away everything I love about computing. I may as well throw it away and go buy a book (and I probably will).

Wenda.

YEAAAAAAAA!



I've been watching the $ale$men pushing SAAS and cloud computing real hard for the past few years. I'm seeing more and more yearly licensing as well. I'm not liking this change in who holds ownership. Were moving towards a rental, subscription society. Too much dependency.