Windows 8 Adoption Rates Behind Vista Rates

Status
Not open for further replies.
heatlesssun said:
I'm in the market for Windows 8 tablets and hybrids so I do keep an eye on things. There certainly weren't five Windows 8 tablets that you could lay your hands on at launch.
Click to expand...

When did this become about "at launch". That was months ago everything is always in short supply "at launch".

If anyone wanted a Windows tablet leading up to Xmas,they could have got one, and they had some to choose from. The reality is not that many people wanted one.
 
Snowdog said:
When did this become about "at launch". That was months ago everything is always in short supply "at launch".

If anyone wanted a Windows tablet leading up to Xmas,they could have got one, and they had some to choose from. The reality is not that many people wanted one.
Click to expand...

I never said that weren't some, I bought one the day after launch as I said, but there simply weren't many, there were only two Clover Trail models to chose from which are the most affordable Windows 8 tablets and again I'm far from the only person that has made this observation. And as for those two I have no idea how well they have done.

I'm not saying that this is the only reason why Windows 8 hasn't sold well but I don't know how one can make the argument that only a few device choices of which only one have and meaningful physical retail availability had absolutely no impact.
 
Last edited:
Vista as whole of installed base of Internet-connected computers would be a larger share than Win8 now, even if both sold the same number of copies. The installed base of computers is just larger now than 6 years ago. Offsetting that is the "dead" worldwide PC market (x86 mobiles, x86 desktops and x86 servers) is around 30% larger than it was in 2006 according the Gartner's data (Q3'06 vs Q3'12, preliminary Q4'12 data should be available in a few days).

While I don't think a few angsty nerds are really having an effect on Win8 sales, I do think that the grumbling from most n00bie news sources, and especially any potential buyers who have tried Win8, has probably hurt sales. But MS seems to be all in for this Metro fiasco, so hopefully the next Windows version can mirror the improvements made from Vista to Windows 7.

Flogger23m said:
It doesn't remove it (with Classic Shell). Annoying Charm pop ups, the Metro button in the upper/lower right, and certian programs open in Metro by default. I fear that as more MS programs become "Metroized" Metro will essentially become forced. The same with other programs. Win 8 is also tied to an email, which is extremely annoying.
Click to expand...
Thanks for bringing up all those points. Metro itself is broken, and it breaks so much of the Windows paradigm (and usability) in the process. What it says to me is that the Windows OS codebase is a huge mess. It *can't* be cleanly partitioned like iOS or Linux. The more Metro apps replace standard built-in Windows apps, the worse the situation becomes.

In another way, this moves makes perfect sense for a MS product: it has always added features to make Windows a "do everything" OS. Instead of making an iWindows to power Windows RT (like iOS is a subset of OSX + mobile specific APIs), MS can say, hey we give you (er, force you to use) a full tablet OS for "free" inside regular old Windows.

Windows RT is just a huge head-scratcher. It is Windows, but it's also not due to binary incompatibility. While MS could have used the opportunity to totally strip out all the legacy junk and just provide an iOS-like subset of the Windows OS, MS pushed a huge Windows codebase onto a segment destined to fail. MS has a lightweight Windows OS (Windows Phone) with a healthy ecosystem, and should have just added tablet functionality to that.

Windows RT can safely be written off even this early in its lifespan. The hardware is way overpriced, and the app selection is awful.
 
pxc said:
Thanks for bringing up all those points. Metro itself is broken, and it breaks so much of the Windows paradigm (and usability) in the process. What it says to me is that the Windows OS codebase is a huge mess. It *can't* be cleanly partitioned like iOS or Linux. The more Metro apps replace standard built-in Windows apps, the worse the situation becomes.
Click to expand...

While many criticisms of Windows 8 are valid I just don't see how something is broken that apparently many people are using without issue. Something that is truly broken should not work at all for anyone.
 
heatlesssun said:
While many criticisms of Windows 8 are valid I just don't see how something is broken that apparently many people are using without issue. Something that is truly broken should not work at all for anyone.
Click to expand...

That's like saying a movie or dish is bad only if everyone hates it. That's never gonna happen. Broken means broken for the majority of people. It's the normal definition I'd say.
 
heatlesssun said:
While many criticisms of Windows 8 are valid I just don't see how something is broken that apparently many people are using without issue. Something that is truly broken should not work at all for anyone.
Click to expand...
It breaks so many Windows paradigms that it can be considered "broken". It's a mess, with an apparently powerful backer inside MS pushing it as the current and future strategy. MS is lost in its Windows strategy.

If Win8 adoption continues to disappoint, MS doesn't need a project a Project Mojave to improve Win8's image. It simply needs to put the Win8 Metro shell and Metro apps where they belong: in a touch screen/low res mobile device mode. Like I wrote earlier, those are handy for devices which can't use keyboard/mouse control. For everyone else, not so much.

Seriously, hasn't anyone who loves Metro apps had a simple app which you needed to switch back and forth to, been completely annoyed by that simple Metro app using up the full screen on a 26" LCD? I can't wait until more built-in Windows apps all do the same retarded thing. /sarcasm
 
MrCrispy said:
That's like saying a movie or dish is bad only if everyone hates it. That's never gonna happen. Broken means broken for the majority of people. It's the normal definition I'd say.
Click to expand...

There's a difference between something having flaws and something being broken. Broken means broke. That there are inherent problems that almost always prevent function for all users of a given system. You'd have to have some kind of study to determine that Windows 8 is broken, meaning that it always prevents some function for the majority of people.
 
pxc said:
It breaks so many Windows paradigms that it can be considered "broken". It's a mess, with an apparently powerful backer inside MS pushing it as the current and future strategy. MS is lost in its Windows strategy.
Click to expand...

But all of the desktop applications that I used on Windows 7 work exactly the same in Windows 8. All of my hardware functions as well. Nothing has really changed with desktop applications or their paradigms.

pxc said:
Seriously, hasn't anyone who loves Metro apps had a simple app which you needed to switch back and forth to, been completely annoyed by that simple Metro app using up the full screen on a 26" LCD? I can't wait until more built-in Windows apps all do the same retarded thing. /sarcasm
Click to expand...

I use a lot of Metro apps, on both desktops and tablets, and the thing is if one need to have windowed apps they simply wouldn't use Metro apps, which really aren't geared towards productivity where multiple onscreen windows tend to be useful. Kindle, Nook, Netflix, games, new readers etc. are the types of Metro apps that I use the most. There's just little need for these kinds of apps to be windowed.
 
heatlesssun said:
Okay, Windows 8 failed. But it will still sell hundreds of millions of copies in its lifetime and eclipse all of other non-Windows desktop OSes.
Click to expand...

Not difficult to do when
1. Its the only SKU you sell.
2. Your a monopoly.
 
heatlesssun said:
Okay, Windows 8 failed. But it will still sell hundreds of millions of copies in its lifetime and eclipse all of other non-Windows desktop OSes.
Click to expand...

..and your point is...?

That means absolutely nothing when Microshaft is competing against itself due to it's monopoly and hard grip on all major OEM vendors.

Microshaft here, sought shoehorning a bolt-on maneuver of Metro (and subsequently an AppStore) on the desktop and using their dominance alone as leverage for mobile market penetration; it failed.
 
http://www.geekwire.com/2013/report-thieves-steal-ipads-microsoft-leave/


Thieves who targeted Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus over the holiday break walked away with five iPads but apparently didn’t consider any Microsoft products worth stealing.

Ouch! That’s the report from the Palo Alto Daily Post, or at least from a scan of an apparent article from the paper making the rounds online. (The paper doesn’t offer a full online version.)

There’s some speculation that it’s a spoof, but the details including the name of the officer, the reporter and the address of the Microsoft campus in Mountain View all appear legitimate, and we also found an online reference to the police report.

The story reads, “Microsoft’s campus in Mountain View is presumably loaded with Microsoft’s latest and greatet products, but a thief decided to steal five Apple iPads from the company’s offices instead.” They were reported to be two iPad 2s, two iPad 3s, and one iPad 4.

The paper notes erroneously that the iPad 4 hasn’t yet been released. That’s the common (though not official) name for the current, fourth-generation iPad.

The story concludes, “No Microsoft products were reported stolen.”

Yes, it reads like it could come from the Onion, but it appears real. We’ve left messages with the Daily Post reporter and the Mountain View PD to confirm the story and the details.
 
Any Apple product is significantly easier to sell without questions and for higher prices than any Android or Windows product.
 
Wrench00 said:
Not difficult to do when
1. Its the only SKU you sell.
2. Your a monopoly.
Click to expand...

But it is difficult to be considered a failure and sell hundreds of millions of units of something no matter what. Honestly I can't think of anything that sells on that kind of scale and is ever called a failure other than a version of Windows.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top