Windows 8 ekes out 3.2 percent of desktop OS market

Microsoft's latest OS is gaining ground but is still in fourth place behind Vista, according to Web tracker Net Applications.

Windows 8 is slowly carving out a slightly larger slice of the OS market.

The latest flavor of Windows captured 3.17 percent of all desktop OS traffic tracked by Net Applications in March. That was a small gain from the 2.67 percent share in February.

Since its official debut last October, Windows 8 has very gradually risen up the ranks, at least in Net Applications' Web traffic reports.

Read more at source:
Windows 8 ekes out 3.2 percent of desktop OS market | Microsoft - CNET News

 

[Coke Robot]

We're in the process of buying new computers at my office and are more or less going with Windows 8 on them right from Dell. This gives us the OEM license, it's the same price as Windows 7 and since we are using laptops, the faster bootups and such of Windows 8 are very welcome to the end users.

I end up doing a 15 minute training session with those I deploy Windows 8 too. I've also found a few YouTube videos on how to use Windows 8 that I make them watch before I will answer any additional questions.

I would also ask here on Eight Forums about what should be learned first, CERTAIN PEOPLE here definitely know the ways and what should be known about the Windows 8.

 

[whs]

Were you drunk when vista came out? As I remember, the economy was doing WWWWWWWAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY better than 2012/2013 for sure.

Just to remind you guys. Vista came out on Febr.1, 2007. That was the day my wife bought her first laptop. We had a lot of fun with it. We both liked Vista. But I don't remember how the economy was in those days. But at the end of 2007, the US housing bubble burst. And that went on until at least 2009.

 

[Coke Robot]

No, it's pretty hard to compare vista's uptake to 8's. It's not the same time period, not the same PC type, not the same market scenario, and not the same tech scenario. Back in vista's day, we had Windows Mobile, and the iphone barely was released. The desktop PC was the reigning king of the PC, laptops were emerging as the form factor of choice, and the Windows OS itself was shite. It wasn't just because of third party issues, but it was genuinely a half-cooked, Windows Server modded version of Windows with glass and shininess. The economy was one that people weren't worried so much about job security, low wages, and potentially losing their money. At that time, it was the height of the housing market.

Move onto to Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 has been released, the iphone is the top most used smartphone platform out there, "app" is a word and is overly concerned about as ios and android rely on those third party apps for a decent experience, the desktop PC has been considered dead and only really for the technologically enabled, gamers, enterprise, and people that need a lot of power. The laptop form factor is the de facto standard of the PC, the tablet form factor is predicted to emerge soon as the form factor of choice in a couple of years. The Windows operating system itself is a matured kernel of vista, runs better than xp or 7 (some will debate this) and is the most controversial version since 95. The economy is one where people are worried about debt and paying it off, not enough jobs, not enough qualifications, not enough well paying jobs at least. The market in the US at least is slowly picking up something. Also, the PC's that people bought four years ago is just fine enough to run Windows 8, 9, and/or 10 without issue as the hardware standards were raised due to vista, with Microsoft committed to make Windows EVEN more efficient as we're seeing with the Blue leak.

Windows vista and 8 aren't even close comparisons to each other, xp and 8 might be a better comparison as the economy back then was slowing down due to the internet bubble and 9/11. Shoot, xp even started this whole "tablet PC/tablet computing" wave...

 

[Coke Robot]

Were you drunk when vista came out? As I remember, the economy was doing WWWWWWWAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYY better than 2012/2013 for sure.

Just to remind you guys. Vista came out on Febr.1, 2007. That was the day my wife bought her first laptop. We had a lot of fun with it. We both liked Vista. But I don't remember how the economy was in those days. But at the end of 2007, the US housing bubble burst. And that went on until at least 2009.

Wasn't it like January 31st? I remember it was delayed a few months and missed the October release. As far as I remembered, the economy had a bit of trouble around 2005-2006 and then it picked up. It was a normal cyclical slowdown, not a totally epic failure on EVERYONE'S behalf that did it. My brother bought a Dell Insiprion slim edition with vista on it, that was my first experience with it. It was cool to use, but after three weeks, every other time a program would screw up and the cool new "This program is not responding, what would you like to do?" prompts would show up. It was nice to click to kill it, but got annoying EVERY other time. I believe he still has that PC to this day as his main puter with like several external drives attached to it... Odd, considering he has a degree in networking...

The bubble officially burst in 2009, but there was a slow build up to it past 2007. The dollar lost value, some companies were reporting some less than expected growth. It was another slowdown, but then idiotic lack of regulation popped the bubble and blew everything up and even continues to this day in Europe and here in the US.

 

[whs]

I agree to a certain point. The Windows 8 nums lump PC, 2 tablet types and the phones all togehter into 1 number. Vista was PC only. It would be interesting to see the Windows 8 PC only numbers.

And that changing world is not going to change that much - at least not soon. Business still needs PCs, gamers, enthusiasts and those who need processing power will still rely on the PC.

That leaves some kids, some professionals who use a tablet and smartphone as a second device and maybe some older people who need it only to skype with their grandchildren. Tablets or smartphones as primary data processing device will probably be the exception.

 

[Coke Robot]

Basically, the desktop PC is pretty for the enthusiast, enterprise (even that is changing), and the gamer. Not many people in the everyday world want a desktop, they want a laptop. They may want a tablet, or tablet PC. Not a desktop anymore. MAYBE a touch AIO PC for sure, those are nifty, but my problem with them is the fact they share laptop hardware in the AIO form factor. I personally want to buy a touchscreen monitor and real desktop ATX parts and build a GENUINE desktop AIO PC, where it tilts down like a drawing easel, and the power of the true desktop. It would require a LOT of modding, soldering, and some nifty fitting of parts. Worth it? Probably for the person who wants good power and a modern desktop form factor. The problem though is getting the PSU though...how to get an ATX power supply to something more of a brick or integrated into the PC. Or maybe a server PSU...

 

[whs]

You keep making the difference between desktop and laptop. If we talk about 'desktop', we mean both. Desktop is the thing you look at, not the box.

 

[Ray8]

You keep making the difference between desktop and laptop. If we talk about 'desktop', we mean both. Desktop is the thing you look at, not the box.

Yes, that's kind of like saying the Surface Pro and it's ilk are not PCs.

 

[Coke Robot]

You keep making the difference between desktop and laptop. If we talk about 'desktop', we mean both. Desktop is the thing you look at, not the box.

I've been talking about the actual FORM FACTOR here, both ATX case and I guess AIO as that is genuinely a "desktop" as it is literally on top of the desk as the very first PC was, an AIO desktop.

 

[Coke Robot]

Shoot, I just did a thorough disassemble of an HP touch AIO PC that needs a new display, and I'm seriously considering building said true and through desktop touch AIO PC using ATX parts. I'm playing around with the display, and it honestly seems that almost ALL the parts can be finagled in minus the PSU. I'm thinking of modding the PSU to also include and external hotswap hard drive cage, so it would be a nice useful little box, and it will tilt down like a drawing easel, and the side profile will basically be a wedge.

This may be my next PC project after mine.... I may also take a picture of what I'm talking about with using touch in the desktop format. It's quite usable.

 

[Ray8]

A good article on why data isn't always reliable:

Former Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson embraced this idea in his comment, "with enough data, the numbers speak for themselves." But can big data really deliver on that promise? Can numbers actually speak for themselves?

Sadly, they can't. Data and data sets are not objective; they are creations of human design. We give numbers their voice, draw inferences from them, and define their meaning through our interpretations. Hidden biases in both the collection and analysis stages present considerable risks, and are as important to the big-data equation as the numbers themselves.

The Hidden Biases in Big Data - Kate Crawford - Harvard Business Review

 

[phillipduran]

No, it's pretty hard to compare vista's uptake to 8's. It's not the same time period, not the same PC type, not the same market scenario, and not the same tech scenario. Back in vista's day, we had Windows Mobile, and the iphone barely was released. The desktop PC was the reigning king of the PC, laptops were emerging as the form factor of choice, and the Windows OS itself was shite. It wasn't just because of third party issues, but it was genuinely a half-cooked, Windows Server modded version of Windows with glass and shininess. The economy was one that people weren't worried so much about job security, low wages, and potentially losing their money. At that time, it was the height of the housing market.

Move onto to Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 has been released, the iphone is the top most used smartphone platform out there, "app" is a word and is overly concerned about as ios and android rely on those third party apps for a decent experience, the desktop PC has been considered dead and only really for the technologically enabled, gamers, enterprise, and people that need a lot of power. The laptop form factor is the de facto standard of the PC, the tablet form factor is predicted to emerge soon as the form factor of choice in a couple of years. The Windows operating system itself is a matured kernel of vista, runs better than xp or 7 (some will debate this) and is the most controversial version since 95. The economy is one where people are worried about debt and paying it off, not enough jobs, not enough qualifications, not enough well paying jobs at least. The market in the US at least is slowly picking up something. Also, the PC's that people bought four years ago is just fine enough to run Windows 8, 9, and/or 10 without issue as the hardware standards were raised due to vista, with Microsoft committed to make Windows EVEN more efficient as we're seeing with the Blue leak.

Windows vista and 8 aren't even close comparisons to each other, xp and 8 might be a better comparison as the economy back then was slowing down due to the internet bubble and 9/11. Shoot, xp even started this whole "tablet PC/tablet computing" wave...

If anything, it is unfair for Vista to be compared to Windows 8 because the assumption should be that Windows 8 will of course out perform Vista in sales.

Windows 8 is EASY to get into. The price is lower and you can pick it up for any flavor of computer you use. You can get it on tablets, convertibles, laptops, desktops. No one is excluded. You can buy into Windows 8 with the device you use. It is more accessible than any other recent Windows OS. It says a lot when you see the sales numbers are lower than Vista when the availability and compatibility is greater for Windows 8.

 

[SIW2]

It says people aren't exactly rushing out to get it.

Gradually, they will have to if they need a new lappie. There is nothing else except for the very few geeks or well off - everyone else gets what MS gives them.

They don't appear to be very keen.

 

[rmeigs]

Windows 8 has a hard uphill fight, but the market is so fickled. Look at the new mobile phone numbers: Android up 13%, iOS down 7%, BlackBerry down 81% … and Windows Phone up a massive 52% | VentureBeat MS is finally making headway after how many years?

IMO, it will be Windows 9 before you see strong market share growth for the new OS direction, but even then, Windows 7 will be a dominate player. Just look at how long XP has lasted.

 

[whs]

You can also read the numbers like that:

iOS down 3.5%
Android up 4.8%
Windows up 1.4%
And the big looser is RIM

I really fail to see what's 'massive' about 1.4% for Windows.

 

[Hopachi]

Compare that to Vista or Windows 7 after 4 months.

View attachment 19353

This is totally normal, now that you think of it.
Since the release cycle has changed the comparison is not honest anymore.

If they changed the OS production cycle and now the systems roll out faster (each year or two) then the scores they get will also be lower: people will have to jump from one to another faster, some will, some not and more user groups will split up. There will always rise new die hard fans of some specific OS that keep it (not to mention: if it wasn't cheap why ditch it?). What I mean with the users: for example Win7 eats the score of Xp (were not looking at Vista small score) so Win7 had a head-start of 3 years to do that, but Win8 will only get one year head-start to the next version (if the release cycle is faster) and it already has market share issues + the tablet mess-up.

Also what we need to add:
Vista made a bad reputation and so Win7 got all attention and was seen as a savior.
But now, what can be better than the savior itself? Nada, after a good release (Win7) people stick to it... Win8 comes too early as well. Between Vista and XP was a long time but since Vista isn't too spectacular for people you'll have to consider the (waiting) gap between XP and 7 (seen as two great releases) which is a long one. So as long as 7 wears it well, 8 will have it's low score and low ascent.

There will be an adaptation period for people to the new release cycle MS is doing. (just like adapting to new climate... go live on Antarctica or on Mars...)
Consider Win8 as an icebreaker that has its risks and that crashes into big chunks of ice creating a path for the ones (OSes) following.

 

[whs]

LOL, it will be one of those ice breakers that got stuck north of Siberia and is rotting away.

 

[Hopachi]

LOL, it will be one of those ice breakers that got stuck north of Siberia and is rotting away.

Well sometimes the ice is very thick, especially north of Siberia.

 

[Ray8]

Windows 8 has a hard uphill fight, but the market is so fickled. Look at the new mobile phone numbers: Android up 13%, iOS down 7%, BlackBerry down 81% … and Windows Phone up a massive 52% | VentureBeat MS is finally making headway after how many years?

IMO, it will be Windows 9 before you see strong market share growth for the new OS direction, but even then, Windows 7 will be a dominate player. Just look at how long XP has lasted.

52% of stuff all is still stuff all.

Windows XP will still be in high numbers by the time Windows 9 comes out.

 

[Coke Robot]

Blackberry needs to die, it's just like a sick puppy that no one wants to touch and does nothing. EVERYONE and their analyst has predicated year after year that Blackberry will finally go bankrupt and/or die. It NEVER does. Goes to show some people's analytical power and shows Blackberry can't die even though it really should just get bought out or absorbed.