Three weeks in: The lackluster launch of Windows 8

Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows RT — and dozens of new touch-enabled devices, such as MS’s own Surface tablet — have now been on the market for three weeks. Whether you’re a critic of the new Start screen, a Windows zealot, or just an interested bystander, you’re all probably wondering the same thing: Has the Windows 8 launch been a success or not?

Source

A Guy
 
Again coming from Soluto. Not a representative data base , if you ask me.
 

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Yes, the author does say that.

He thinks Soluto figures is much too high - but even if you take that figure - it still doesn't look promising.

There is no way that Soluto’s Windows 8 install base of 3.1% is representative of the market as a whole......

And therein lies the crux of the matter: Even if Windows 8 is awful, the PC juggernaut virtually guarantees that by this time next year there will be 400 million PCs running the new operating system. The PC market won’t last forever, though, which is exactly why Microsoft has made a very rapid right-angle turn into the tablet market. Really, the only metric that we ought to be watching is the number of Windows 8 tablets — and at the moment, even if we go by Soluto’s figures, things aren’t looking very good at all.

I added the bolded word, I am sure that is what he meant.
 

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Note people measure this for every release, and Windows 7 didn't even sell as well as Windows Vista in it's first few weeks (or even months) of release, and yet I think most of us would agree Windows 7 sales were quite good, and the OS is also.
Windows 7: Putting Early Sales Figures in Perspective | PCWorld

I don't know what will happen long term, but I wouldn't go meta analyzing things either. It seems to be somewhat unrelated to what actually happens over time.
 

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I know people who still run XP and won't have a bar of Win 7. I also know of some very large organisations that are still on XP and only now are testing transition to Win 7. So Win 8 is only going to initially expand through new PC/tablet sales and very unlikely from an upgrade perspective, except for those with very old systems. That's the way it's always been and to expect anything else is a bit naive, especially considering the timeframe since Win 8 was launched.

And despite the hoopla, people are going to be wary about transitioning to something completely new, if their system is working fine. Though I have to say that Microsoft was exceedingly dumb in not allowing users the choice of interface from the outset, and not through third party software to seek out a desktop environment. The 'Modern' interface is dog droppings for a desktop user and will scare traditional PC users away if they don't know they have other options.

I always thought that Win 8 marketing was a disaster, as all I ever saw was the Metro/Modern interface in every example leading up to the final release and even thereafter. Microsoft should have offered the traditional interface in parallel and coaxed people to try both, so that they could be weaned into becoming familiar and comfortable with the Modern interface if/when they purchased a tablet, Windows Phone or whatever. Now it's a case of closing the gate after the horse has bolted.
 

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Note people measure this for every release, and Windows 7 didn't even sell as well as Windows Vista in it's first few weeks (or even months) of release, and yet I think most of us would agree Windows 7 sales were quite good, and the OS is also.
Windows 7: Putting Early Sales Figures in Perspective | PCWorld

I don't know what will happen long term, but I wouldn't go meta analyzing things either. It seems to be somewhat unrelated to what actually happens over time.

This is why I consider this articles to be moot. Three years ago, Windows 7 was doing OK in its initial launch but wasn't enough to get people to buy new PCs. Even back then, it seems like desktop PC sales were doing lukewarm just as they are no. Three years later, 7 has sold over half a billion copies and millions of new PCs with innovative designs and hardware to follow it; which partly refutes the notion in your posted article saying PC sales weren't doing too hot initially, but sales of the software were high as it came in to redeem a crap OS.

No one knew three years ago Windows 7 would be the fastest selling and hugely adopted version from Microsoft EVER. No one knows what will happen to Windows 8 in two years. Which to sum up, why I call BS on initial reviews like this about a new Windows release this early.
 

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    x2 3 TB Toshibas
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    Arctic Cooler with 3 heatpipes
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    Logitech K750 wireless solar powered keyboard
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Anyone running w7 from the getgo had a very good idea of how popular it would be. Anything else is just wishfull thinking.

Just about every person I know was on w7 betas right away. None of my friends will go anywhere close to w8, not a single one.

They are practically giving w8 away and still not flying off the shelves, what a shocker. :eek:
 

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C'mon guys
get real -- a lot of the quotes "A Guy" sources are often written in magazines which have other agendas to push.

With Xmas coming people are at this stage deciding whether a PC or tablet is the choice and with probably one of the better tablets out there (The SURFACE PRO) not expected to make its debut until AFTER XMAS there isn't a huge amount of activity in the PC market currently -- this would of course include OS upgrades.

Ms is in this for "The Long Haul" -- rare for US corporations and CEO's of them who are only concerned with the stock price next Monday when the market opens.

Once the tablet and phone market get going you'll see W8 improve sales.

Remember the launch of W7 -- basically people WANTED to get rid of VISTA so W7 was a relevation. Others who had (and still have) XP didn't immediately rush out and upgrade their OS'es.

Having looked at tablets myself and initially thought for MY purposes (YMMV of course) tablets were a waste of time and space - I've had other thoughts especially after trying an RT tablet. I wouldn't buy one of these myself - but I'm very interested in looking to see what its big brother the SURFACE PRO has to offer.

Depending on the price I'll decide between an Ultrabook or a tablet so here's one customer who won't be buying until after Xmas this year and I'm sure there are plenty of others.

I'm sure Ms wanted "To get these in the stores in time for Xmas" but as I said Ms is in this for the long haul and for once they've decided (or it was decided for them due to external factors - manufacturing specs etc etc) that its better to get the product out of the door late rather than ship it out with too much haste and then have repair easily foreseable errors.

Currently if the surface pro specs are to be believed there isn't a realistic competitor for this.
Asus are the nearest but they won't stack up when the Ms product come out so you can do a real comparison.

Don't unload your Ms stock just yet.

I'd be a bit more worried if I was a stockholder or an employee of "The Fruit Company" at the present time.

Cheers
jimbo
 

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    PC/Desktop
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    SSD's * 3 (Samsung 840 series) 250 GB
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    5 X 1 TB sata
    Internet Speed
    0.12 GB/s (120Mb/s)
C'mon guys
get real -- a lot of the quotes "A Guy" sources are often written in magazines which have other agendas to push.

With Xmas coming people are at this stage deciding whether a PC or tablet is the choice and with probably one of the better tablets out there (The SURFACE PRO) not expected to make its debut until AFTER XMAS there isn't a huge amount of activity in the PC market currently -- this would of course include OS upgrades.

Ms is in this for "The Long Haul" -- rare for US corporations and CEO's of them who are only concerned with the stock price next Monday when the market opens.

Once the tablet and phone market get going you'll see W8 improve sales.

Remember the launch of W7 -- basically people WANTED to get rid of VISTA so W7 was a relevation. Others who had (and still have) XP didn't immediately rush out and upgrade their OS'es.

Having looked at tablets myself and initially thought for MY purposes (YMMV of course) tablets were a waste of time and space - I've had other thoughts especially after trying an RT tablet. I wouldn't buy one of these myself - but I'm very interested in looking to see what its big brother the SURFACE PRO has to offer.

Depending on the price I'll decide between an Ultrabook or a tablet so here's one customer who won't be buying until after Xmas this year and I'm sure there are plenty of others.

I'm sure Ms wanted "To get these in the stores in time for Xmas" but as I said Ms is in this for the long haul and for once they've decided (or it was decided for them due to external factors - manufacturing specs etc etc) that its better to get the product out of the door late rather than ship it out with too much haste and then have repair easily foreseable errors.

Currently if the surface pro specs are to be believed there isn't a realistic competitor for this.
Asus are the nearest but they won't stack up when the Ms product come out so you can do a real comparison.

Don't unload your Ms stock just yet.

I'd be a bit more worried if I was a stockholder or an employee of "The Fruit Company" at the present time.

Cheers
jimbo
:ditto: Yep, my thoughts exactly. The PC market isn't like a giant ipod touch where it can sell millions within weeks just because some company calls it "revolutionary" when there is just a better screen resolution. Even Windows upgrades don't take place as quickly, and as you said, it picks up at the holidays and after; where some people buy or receive a new Windows PC, friends and family get to play with, get impressed with Windows 8, and then later want to upgrade due to the physical interaction they had.

Actually, there is this app for Windows 8 called SimTrader, basically simulated stock trading. I had a share of apple stock that I later sold off as I lost about 175 dollars and was killing my stock portfolio. :p

And I'm also planning on a Surface Pro with preferably a red touch cover.
 

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    16 gig DDR3
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    16 gig DDR3
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    x2 3 TB Toshibas
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They need to create a want. Starting off first with better designs coming from HP and Dell(some of their product designs are horrible) and better marketing they don't even use their image mark in their logo for advertisements creating such a disconnect to the audience. They need to market their products better. Maybe time for an xbox music player.
 

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I did two upgrade installs and they worked perfectly. Saved me heaps of time and angst re-installing a shed load of software.

Cheers

Ray
 

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I don't fear doing upgrade installs.

After all, what's the worst that can happen?

Having to then do a clean install if it doesn't work isn't a killer issue to me.

For the record, I did an u/g install of the CP over Win 7 Ult.

Ran like a Swiss watch since last March, until I set it back to W7 last week.

Never had a single u/g-related issue.

BUT.... as I've said before, I do not recommend it to the inexperienced.
 

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Poor sales of 8 should not come as a surprise to anyone here. We've been saying that would happen for some time now.
 

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you guys have to look at things in real terms. no matter how big apple and google talks up the sales of devices like tablets, they're still a drop in the bucket compared to PC sales. yes, tablets are shooting up while PC sales are stagnant.

but while selling 3 tablets instead of 1 is better growth than 15 PCs instead of 14 PCs, it's still 15 to 3.

Apple and Google (and their fans) are trying their hardest to make this a self-fulfilling prophecy. That if you say Apple and Google are dominant enough, everyone starts to believe it.

Everyone knows that Apple and Google are on a serious upswing. But people need to see where the markets actually are at. Like you always see the Mac articles saying that Macs are growing tremendously but yet they're still at 10% of the market.
 

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you guys have to look at things in real terms. no matter how big apple and google talks up the sales of devices like tablets, they're still a drop in the bucket compared to PC sales. yes, tablets are shooting up while PC sales are stagnant.


how can you call it a drop in the bucket , you base this assumption on what ? here the real numbers, Apple ( phone, tablet and OSX ) as 18% of the market. This is a world stats, In China, Russia and other poor country , they don't purchase Apple products ( well very limited ) I will try to get the US share of the market, you gone fall from your chair

share4.jpg


Usage share of operating systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

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    Gskill 4x4 GB
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    4 x HD 7970
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    C:\Intel series 520 SSD , 250 GB
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    E:\ WD 2TB Black
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    TT Mozart TX
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    Water Cooled
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    Logitech G-15
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    Windows 8 VM is install on his own SSD.
Some government organisations in The Netherlands, like the one I work at, are still running Windows XP, Office 2003 and IE6. Talk about taking security seriously! I don't think they have any plans to upgrade to either Windows 7 or 8 and don't see the need to upgrade to the latest IE browser.

At home I've upgraded all my computers to Windows 8 Pro + Windows Media Center. As for using IE, I don't, I use Opera as my default browser in Windows 8 Pro.
 

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you guys have to look at things in real terms. no matter how big apple and google talks up the sales of devices like tablets, they're still a drop in the bucket compared to PC sales. yes, tablets are shooting up while PC sales are stagnant.

how can you call it a drop in the bucket , you base this assumption on what ? here the real numbers, Apple ( phone, tablet and OSX ) as 18% of the market. This is a world stats, In China, Russia and other poor country , they don't purchase Apple products ( well very limited ) I will try to get the US share of the market, you gone fall from your chair

View attachment 11595


Usage share of operating systems - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

just using your table alone, 7 out of 10 people (converting the numbers into simplistic terms) use Windows. 1 out of 10 use iOS. so it is a drop in the bucket.

i know you're an apple optimist. but we deal with reality here.
 

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System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
Ok let say your bucket as 2 gallons ( 8 liters or 8000 ml )

you need 20 drop for make 1 ml

so the ration is 1 drop for every 160 000 ml

so 1/160 000 we are far from your 1/10


as you said you want to keep the number simple, so I don't use PPM...

You want reality, all the kids of my customers use phones and tablets to facebook and text and they don't have PCs anymore in their bedrooms, before they all have their own PC, Microsoft is not performing well in the Phone and Tablets. ....... this is the reality...no need to accuse me of been pro Apple, I just relate the facts
 

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  • OS
    Windows 8 enterprise x64
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    Pc-Quebec / Area 66
    CPU
    i7-3960X Extreme Edition
    Motherboard
    Rampage IV Extreme
    Memory
    Gskill 4x4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    4 x HD 7970
    Sound Card
    onboard
    Screen Resolution
    2560*1600
    Hard Drives
    C:\Intel series 520 SSD , 250 GB
    D:\ WD 750 black with Intel 40gb SSD cache Intel RST
    E:\ WD 2TB Black
    PSU
    Corsair AX 1200
    Case
    TT Mozart TX
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Logitech G-15
    Other Info
    Windows 8 VM is install on his own SSD.
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