So, will that be a $399 tablet or $799 Windows 8 PC? The answer to that question is killing the PC upgrade cycle.
Well, in my case, it was an A$129.00 tablet (7" Android) purchased a month ago, and
an A$2700.00 mega-laptop purchased one year ago.
This machine was an upgrade from an older, smaller, less powerful laptop, which is now
over four years old, still running just fine, and is used as my Windows 7 machine.
This new machine is very powerful and highly-specced, with quality components used
throughout and its only 'failings' (well, they're not, really) is that the hard disks are
both spinners (750GB each, though), and the i7 quad-core CPU is 'only' a Sandy Bridge.
It does not have a touch screen or UEFI, neither of which I want anyway, but it runs Win
8 fast and flawlessly with a mouse/keyboard (yes, it has a full 101-key keyboard, essential
AFAIC) or somewhat less flawlessly with the control pad.
As purchased, it was running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, but later it ran the
Windows 8 Enterprise trial till it expired. I then purchased and installed the retail version
of Windows 8 Pro w/WMC.
The point being (yes, there IS a point to all this) that, having upgraded a year ago, I have
no need to do so now. Also, having purchased Windows 8, I have no need to upgrade the
machine to get the new OS. The earliest I'd normally have been considering a hardware
upgrade would be around Jan-Feb 2015, but not if I can't get a mega-laptop that's at least
the (relative) equal to what I have now in terms of physical size, level/quality of features
and power.
Nor would I have normally been planning to 'upgrade' to Windows 8 until then as I've been
perfectly happy with Windows 7 in every way.
The tablet purchase was irrelevant, it had/has no bearing on my PC upgrade plans. It is
purely a recreational device, used for reading e-books, light audio/visual entertainment
and casual 'net browsing when I'm away from my mega-laptop. Nothing more.
Wenda.