Study says: Windows 8 users rarely touch Metro apps

Soluto’s report digs into how often people really use those apps on a daily basis.

The news isn’t wonderful. Of the 10,848 Windows 8 devices studied by Soluto, the majority of traditional desktop and laptop users—even ones using a device with a touchscreen—fail to open a modern-style app daily. (Note that this study refers only to modern apps, not to traditional desktop programs.) Even on tablets, the devices best suited for Windows 8’s modern UI, just 56 percent of all users launch a Windows 8 app day in and day out.

Source

A Guy

 

[Lazure]

I use the Weather and Calendar ones all the time. I also like what they did with Solitaire Collection, Minesweeper, and Mahjong.

Things I wish they'd do:
* Allow Calendar to be accurate to the minute, not every 5 minutes for both setting reminder time and setting appointment time.
* Allow me to pick which weather service becomes the primary source of information (in the bigger numbers)
* Give Hearts, 3D Chess Titans, and maybe even Purble place the official MS windows 8 treatment as they did with the above mentioned windows games. The alternatives on the store look so ugly or lack features compared to Microsoft's official remakes.

 

[boohbah]

For me it's completely irrelevant if the BBC world News App I use is published by BBC or not, as far as it shows the contents of BBC World News website as the apps available do.

are you still harping on about bbc apps, you've already been told they dont exist . nuff said.

 

[goodintentions]

Haha, you guys are funny.

 

[Phone Man]

I use the Weather and Calendar ones all the time. I also like what they did with Solitaire Collection, Minesweeper, and Mahjong.

Things I wish they'd do:
* Allow Calendar to be accurate to the minute, not every 5 minutes for both setting reminder time and setting appointment time.
* Allow me to pick which weather service becomes the primary source of information (in the bigger numbers)
* Give Hearts, 3D Chess Titans, and maybe even Purble place the official MS windows 8 treatment as they did with the above mentioned windows games. The alternatives on the store look so ugly or lack features compared to Microsoft's official remakes.

See my post for link to program to install the Windows 7 games on Windows 8. Works great.

http://www.eightforums.com/gaming/11434-windows-8-solitaire-collection-2.html#post134807

Jim

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Seems to me, as a non 8 user, that you have the choice of both, so use what suits you, no? A Guy

I use windows 8 for both desktop and metro. Love both. I don't understand why some people on here hate choice so much. If they don't like metro, there are a few simple things they can do that will hide the start screen forever.

Ditto to both (and others). :thumb:

 

[jimbo45]

I use the Weather and Calendar ones all the time. I also like what they did with Solitaire Collection, Minesweeper, and Mahjong.

Things I wish they'd do:
* Allow Calendar to be accurate to the minute, not every 5 minutes for both setting reminder time and setting appointment time.
* Allow me to pick which weather service becomes the primary source of information (in the bigger numbers)
* Give Hearts, 3D Chess Titans, and maybe even Purble place the official MS windows 8 treatment as they did with the above mentioned windows games. The alternatives on the store look so ugly or lack features compared to Microsoft's official remakes.

Hi there
If you want to install Ms Classic games (The Windows 7 versions) just get the 32 / 64 bit version from my dropbox account.

Games work fine (I prefer them to the W8 ones in the store) and they also work on W2012 server too !!!! (provide the desktop experience feature is turned on).

You can use this link also if Phoneman's link doesn't work.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9rypo5zxfp5d767/tRhHGG6zys?v=0mcn

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Fredledingue]

Native Windows 8 Apps I use daily: Mail Calendar Messaging Weather News IE Third party Windows Apps I use daily: FilmOn (UK TV) TuneIn (Global radio) BBC World News BBC Tech News CNN Ilta-sanomat (news from Finland) Tom's Harware (tech news) Wikipedia Google

As Tarka said, why an app for each of these things, while everything can be available on a web browser? The suspended app list is cool, but limited in its amount of "tabs", and the experience is not the same as a tabbed browser. I mean, it's nice, but apps should be integrated in a web browser rather than the desktop surrogate aka Start Screen.

 

[Rickkins]

According to the soluto report, on top of horrifically poor sales of 8, less than half of those sales result in people using tifkam..... seems to me 8.1 is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.....

 

[HippsieGypsie]

Ah, yes. The Titanic example again. It was a great ship. As modern as modern could be in those days. It was actually a big mistake of the blind navigators (users) that sank it.

 

[turbofish]

And the ship maker for using low quality materials

 

[labeeman]

And a major design ERROR.

 

[Phone Man]

I use the Weather and Calendar ones all the time. I also like what they did with Solitaire Collection, Minesweeper, and Mahjong.

Things I wish they'd do:
* Allow Calendar to be accurate to the minute, not every 5 minutes for both setting reminder time and setting appointment time.
* Allow me to pick which weather service becomes the primary source of information (in the bigger numbers)
* Give Hearts, 3D Chess Titans, and maybe even Purble place the official MS windows 8 treatment as they did with the above mentioned windows games. The alternatives on the store look so ugly or lack features compared to Microsoft's official remakes.

Hi there
If you want to install Ms Classic games (The Windows 7 versions) just get the 32 / 64 bit version from my dropbox account.

Games work fine (I prefer them to the W8 ones in the store) and they also work on W2012 server too !!!! (provide the desktop experience feature is turned on).

You can use this link also if Phoneman's link doesn't work.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9rypo5zxfp5d767/tRhHGG6zys?v=0mcn

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo, thanks for that link. Its a lot easier then following my post.

Jim

 

[Phone Man]

That article did say that 41% of Windows 8 Desktop uses actually used a Metro app at least once a day. From a lot of negative posts on here I would of thought no one was using a Metro app on a desktop. I guess 41% of Windows 8 desktop users are just too dumb to realize they should not use Metro apps on a desktop.

PS: I am one of the 41%

Jim

 

[kbz1960]

I don't ever touch them.

 

[Lazure]

@Jimbo Oh don't get me wrong, I actually like the new versions in Windows 8. The themes are real pretty and animated and I like that. My only wish is they gave the same treatment to the other Windows 7 games they abandoned. But good to know you can still run the ones they didn't port over. The third party versions of these games are really poorly done. I find the quality and polish of Windows 8 exclusive apps done by third parties so far to be very lacking. Like, using comic sans for a font and flat gradients and stuff everywhere looks hideous to me. Microsoft's official ones are awesome, though, and I hope they do more!

For instance, I was looking for a simple memory match game. One I found looked hideous on 1920x1080 because the graphics were scaled up on NEAREST_NEIGHBOR filtering, aka big distorted ugly pixellated blocky graphics. A few others had the comic sans squares and really crappy or overly childish images thrown together without any real polish. The only one I found that looked decent was MatchR Memory, but it uses very basic symbolism rather than pictures and makes an annoying BUZZER sound if you match wrongly. Oh well, hopefully if Microsoft ever gains ground with Windows 8 that devs will start making better apps for it. Until then, playing what Microsoft officially hands to us and running non-Metro games is the way to go right now. Most of the games that have the green XBOX tag on them seem to be pretty well made, at least.

 

[EMINENT]

I use Metro all the time on the Pro and hardly ever on the desktop.

If you want to use a different os on your tablet, go right ahead.

I like the convenience of one on both for convenience. I don't know why this is so hard to fathom.

 

[HippsieGypsie]

It looks as though I may have opened Pandora's box.

Windows 8 is as modern as modern can be nowadays for an OS. Quite brilliant IMO.

And the ship maker for using low quality materials

Simply not so.

JOM Article on The Titanic: Did a Metallurgical Failure Cause a Night to Remember?

CONCLUSIONS
The steel used in constructing the RMS Titanic was probably the best plain carbon ship plate available in the period of 1909 to 1911, but it would not be acceptable at the present time for any construction purposes and particularly not for ship construction. Whether a ship constructed of modern steel would have suffered as much damage as the Titanic in a similar accident seems problematic. Navigational aides exist now that did not exist in 1912; hence,
icebergs would be sighted at a much greater distance, allowing more time for evasive action. If the Titanic had not collided with the iceberg, it could have had a career of more than 20 years as the Olympic had. It was built of similar steel, in the same shipyard, and from the same design. The only difference was a big iceberg.

Testing Shows Titanic Steel Was Brittle

The steel used to build the Titanic was not as "impact-resistant" as modern steel, according to Dr. H.P. Leighly, a professor emeritus of metallurgical engineering at UMR. But it was the best steel available at the time, says Leighly, who studied some 200 pounds of steel from the wreckage.

Some may argue different, but its more quality code and better computing experience coming out of Redmond.

Features new to Windows 8 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Windows 8 includes new features, including native USB 3.0 and full 4K Advanced Format support, Microsoft account integration, Windows Store, the ability to boot from USB Flash drives with Windows To Go, and easier system restore options, among others.

And a major design ERROR.

I don't think so. The Titanic was one of three of the Olympic-class ocean liners: Olympic-class ocean liner - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although not perfect and just as Windows 8 is leading-edge OS engineering of our day, they were designed with leading-edge engineering of their day of which their hulls were divided into 16 compartments via 15 water-tight bulheads. The fact that they didn't see the iceburg in time, that they were at top speed to break a record, and wrong decisions in steering it clear of the iceburg and/or slowing it down as not to cause such severe damage is solely human user error.

Titanic's Bulkheads & Watertight Compartments

Some of us see the genius of MS at work in Windows 8. I simply don't know what to say to those who do not, other than stick with lesser engineered OSs of the past.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
At the time the Titanic was state of the art - and it was only due to exceptional bad luck that the ship Sank.

There is some speculation also that had the ship crashed directly into the iceberg that it might have survived or at least a lot more people might have survived ( however a ship of that mass running at around 40 KM / Hr hitting an iceberg directly even if it didn't sink would certainly have caused a load of severe injuries to people on board -- they weren't using Seat belts etc !!!) .

Nothing discovered since the disaster shows that either the quality of the components or the standard of workmanship (for the time in question - 1912) was anything other than first class.

The problem with Windows 8 (original version) was that it certainly WASN'T a first class piece of workmanship. The modifications in the 8.1 version appear to have fixed the main problems with the original version.

However in the case of the titanic - modifying the "Unsinkable bulkheads" as was done for the other two ships in the series --wouldn't necessarily have saved the titanic either -- there's still huge speculation about that but the length of the gash in the side of the ship probably would have been fatal whatever system was in place. The Titanic was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[labeeman]

This is how we learn form our mistakes but M$ seems to have turned deaf dumb and blind to most user complaints. After the release we will see if M$ has opened there eyes but not until then because M$ does change things before release.

 

[Rickkins]

I use Metro all the time on the Pro and hardly ever on the desktop.

If you want to use a different os on your tablet, go right ahead.

I like the convenience of one on both for convenience. I don't know why this is so hard to fathom.

It' not hard to fathom at all, actually. In fact, I use a very similar system as you. I have windows on my desktop, and on my laptop. Works out just fine for me.

However, on both my touch devices, I have android. And that's how I like that...