“Further confirming our suspicions that Windows 8 is off to a slow start, a Newegg senior vice president has said that sales of Windows 8 have been ‘slow going,'” Sebastian Anthony reports for ExtremeTech. “Likewise, sales of hardware with Windows 8 pre-installed has been ‘slow and steady.'”
“These quotes come from Merle McIntosh, Newegg’s senior vice president of product management, in an interview with ReadWrite. The fact that Newegg, one of the world’s largest retailers of computers, components, and associated paraphernalia, is actually going on the record to register its disappointment is a huge blow for Microsoft,” Anthony reports. “In the absence of official figures from Microsoft, Newegg’s Windows 8 stats are probably the best bellwether that we could hope for — or the worst, depending on your point of view.”
Read more in the full article here.
Paul Thurrott reports for SuperSite for Windows, “Sales of Windows 8 PCs are well below Microsoft’s internal projections and have been described inside the company as disappointing.”
“One of my most trusted sources at Microsoft confirmed Windows 8’s weak start this week,” Thurrott reports. “consumers have plenty of choice these days, and many are quite comfortable stretching out the next PC purchase and using a companion device, like an iPad or other tablet. The problem is, they may discover that’s all the computer they need and simply opt out of Windows going forward.”
MacDailyNews Take: Not a problem, Paulie. Not a problem at all – well, except for Microsoft or anyone stuck with umpteen Windows-releated domain names, that is. 😉
Thurrott writes, “It’s a floor wax. No, it’s a dessert topping. Microsoft’s new whatever-the-F-it-is operating system is a confusing, Frankenstein’s monster mix of old and new… Confusing? You bet. And I actually get this stuff. What’s a typical consumer to think?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This train wreck is going to be sooooo verrrrry enjoyable!
Now, what was that we said a year and a half ago? Oh, yeah:
Our initial impression is that Microsoft, in trying to cram everything into Windows 8 in an attempt to be all things to all devices, will end up with an OS that’s a jack of all trades and a master of none (which, after all, ought to be Microsoft’s company motto)… We simply do not see the world clamoring for the UI of an iPod also-ran now ported to an iPhone wannabe that nobody’s buying to be blown up onto a PC display.
From what we’ve seen so far, Windows 8 strikes us as an unsavory combination of Windows Weight plus Windows Wait.
Not to mention that probably no one on earth knows how much or what kinds of residual legacy spaghetti code roils underneath it all (shudder)… No matter what, if Microsoft’s going to ask Windows sufferers to “learn a whole new computer” (and that’s exactly how they’ll look at it, regardless of how Microsoft pitches it), millions will simply say, “Time to get a Mac to match my iPod, iPhone, and iPad!”
As if they needed it: More good news for Apple. – MacDailyNews Take, June 6, 2011
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Mark A.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Design guru Nielsen: Windows 8 a ‘misguided’ product; UI ‘smothers usability’ – November 19, 2012
TechCrunch’s Siegler reviews Microsoft Surface RT: ‘It’s time for a drop test – right into the garbage can’ – November 19, 2012
USA Today survey: 1 in 3 Windows PC users intend on switching to Apple Mac or iPad – November 15, 2012
Microsoft hit with lawsuit over Surface tablet’s lack of storage due to bloated Windows RT operating system – November 15, 2012
Beleaguered Microsoft has failed – November 14, 2012
Slate reviews Microsoft’s Surface tablet: Too slow, mercilessly buggy; why is it so bad? – November 6, 2012
Microsoft’s bloated Windows RT eats 16GB of Surface tablet – November 5, 2012
InfoWorld reviews Microsoft Surface RT: A disappointment; you’re better off with Apple’s iPad – October 31, 2012
Acer delays Windows RT tablets; adopts ‘wait and see’ approach after poor Surface RT reviews – October 30, 2012
Gizmodo reviews Microsoft Surface RT: Do not buy; inferior to Apple’s iPad; the worst of both worlds – October 25, 2012
The Verge reviews Microsoft Surface RT tablet: ‘The whole thing is honestly perplexing; who is this for?’ – October 24, 2012
Analyst: Microsoft’s Surface RT tablet priced too high, could be the next Zune – October 18, 2012
Dvorak: ‘Microsoft’s Surface tablet isn’t the Apple iPad, so it shouldn’t be priced like one’ – October 18, 2012
Microsoft inexplicably claims Surface RT tablet lower resolution screen beats iPad with Retina display – October 17, 2012
Microsoft Surface RT tablet Wi-Fi-only; 32GB for $599 with, $499 without keyboard, $699 for 64GB – October 16, 2012
Microsoft airs first TV ad for Surface tablet (with video) – October 15, 2012
Apple’s ‘iPad mini’ to obliterate Microsoft’s Windows 8, Surface RT tablet launches – October 13, 2012
Acer CEO to Microsoft: ‘Think twice’ about Surface tablets – August 7, 2012
Microsoft Surface tablet pricing leaked; US$1,000 for ‘cheapest’ Windows RT model – July 26, 2012
Ballmer: Uh, yeah, ‘Surface is just a design point,’ you know – July 10, 2012
Microsoft’s Buffoon, er… Ballmer throws down gauntlet against Apple – July 10, 2012
Microsoft reportedly dumps ‘VaporMg’ chassis, will use ‘VaporMg’ only as ‘surface treatment’ – July 9, 2012
Microsoft’s downfall: Inside the executive e-mails and cannibalistic culture that fueled Microsoft’s lost decade – July 7, 2012
HP said to dump Microsoft over Surface; to cozy up to Google Android for tablet efforts – July 2, 2012
Bad news for Microsoft’s iPad killer? – July 2, 2012
Dear Microsoft, Steve Balmer and Bill Gates: What is up with your obsession with keyboards? – June 28, 2012
Jason Schwarz: Top 10 reasons why Microsoft’s Surface is DOA – June 22, 2012
Why I love Microsoft’s vaporware Surface tablet – June 22, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet said to be Wi-Fi only at launch; no 4G, no 3G, no 2G, not even 1G – June 22, 2012
Microsoft outsources Surface assembly to Pegatron; prices above $799 for Windows 8, above $599 for Windows RT expected – June 21, 2012
Acer founder: Microsoft will quit making tablets soon – June 21, 2012
Devastating video shows Microsoft’s Surface event aping Steve Jobs’ iPad unveiling (with video) – June 20, 2012
Thanks to Apple, Microsoft is doomed in the era of mobile computing – June 20, 2012
Why wouldn’t Microsoft let anyone touch its Surface tablets’ keyboard cover? – June 20, 2012
The cost of Microsoft’s Surface tablets – June 20, 2012
Apple’s revolutionary iPad vs. Microsoft’s anti-tablet ‘Surface’ – June 20, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablets provokes ‘sense of betrayal’ among Windows PC assemblers – June 20, 2012
Fox News: Copier Microsoft is doomed to fail with Surface tablet – June 19, 2012
Microsoft’s Surface tablet destined to be as successful as the Zune – June 19, 2012
Surface: Why Microsoft’s big mystery turns out to be a big mistake – June 19, 2012
Microsoft’s Suicide, er… ‘Surface’ – June 19, 2012
ZDNet Sr. Tech Editor Perlow: Microsoft’s Surface has catastrophe written all over it – June 19, 2012
Microsoft previews own ‘Surface’ tablet – June 18, 2012
Microsoft touts ‘major’ June 18 event said to showcase Windows RT tablets – June 15, 2012
ZDNet’s Kingsley-Hughes: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is an awful, horrible, painful design disaster – June 8, 2012
Analyst meets with big computer maker, finds ‘general lack of enthusiasm’ for Windows 8 – June 8, 2012
Dvorak: Windows 8 an unmitigated disaster; unusable and annoying; it makes your teeth itch – June 3, 2012
The Guardian: Microsoft’s Windows 8 is confusing as hell; an appalling user experience – March 5, 2012
More good news for Apple: Microsoft previews Windows 8 (with video) – June 1, 2011
iPads fly off the shelves in 2013. Windows tanks, setting the stage for the return of the Gates.
Citizen Gates has left the Jurassic Park One campus building. He has no interest in coming back as he no longer needs Microsoft.
The stench of failure slowly spreads like mustard gas over the ruined landscape, filling the bomb craters gaping like eye sockets. The fetid wind nudges a sock puppet through the blackened weeds. In the high castle, a bald man sighs deeply.
@hannahjs: If you don’t write short fiction for a living, you ought to. The above was delightful and full of great imagery!
Almost damn poetic!
Brought a tear to my eye…. And a smile 😉
reads like a Nostradamus quattraine
No more post-apocalyptic rants against MS bald man Ballmer.
I’m personally hope it will be seppuku rather than mustard gas as the rest of the MS crew deserves to survive.
Could almost be Philip K Dick…
..gaping like empty eye sockets…
Just a suggestion. It’s more in the flavor of Hunter S. Thompson that way.:-)
Well said.
@hannahjs-
Just great! You’re a natural.
“…nudges a sock puppet through the blackened weeds. In the high castle, a bald man sighs deeply.”
Brilliant and beautiful.
But I thought it was Oprah’s favorite thing! LoL
For a million bucks, rubber dog shit could be one of Oprah’s favorite things.
DAMN! Good thing I wasn’t drinking coffee when I read that!
But now that I think about it, rubber dog shit sounds pretty cool and would have its uses. Unlike the Surface.
… Is this really a difference between rubber dog shit and the MS Surface Tablet
Yes! If you put the dog shit under the tree, someone will laugh. If there’s a Surface there, they’ll cry…
Even a dog will eat his own poop but nobody’s swallowing the Zunietunes Teletubbie Tablet.
So it would seem. LoL
I just watched the Oprah’s Favorite Things show on OWN (my wife was watching) and I saw how Oprah picks her “favorite” things. For the Surface, a Microsoft rep brings in one they have customized with a picture of Oprah and her dogs as the wallpaper. She looks at it and likes how it looks. They fold down the keyboard cover and they ooooo and aaaahhh to it and she says OK, it’s on the favorite things list. She NEVER EVER used it or even got past the lock screen. She doesn’t even know if thing works at all.
Pathetic, disingenuous promotion. The reps probably didn’t even know how to use it. Rep: “You wanna know what’s the coolest thing about this $629 machine? The clicking sound of the kickstand. It’s like a truck door opening and closing. So cool.” Oprah: “You have my wire instructions right?”
A few years ago, when Microsoft panicked over iPhone, they essentially abandoned their large existing base of Window Mobile customers, and “rebooted” their entire mobile effort with Windows Phone 7. And many of those existing customers abandoned Microsoft and got an iPhone.
More recently, Microsoft panicked over iPad… This time (with Windows 8), they have abandoned their HUGE existing based Windows (desktop) customers, to go after (the potential for) new tablet customers. Many of those existing customers will abandon Microsoft and get a Mac and/or an iPad.
Microsoft only had those customers because Windows was their “default choice” for years. When there is a “considered choice,” most customers (especially consumers) will not choose Windows. Once they are gone, most will never go back to Windows.
Very well written. I never really saw it from that point of view. 10000
Totally agree. I think M$ have painted themselves completely into a corner with W8.
W8 breaks just about every UI design rule you can think of – I’m all for simplification but to dumb down an interface to the degree found in W8 makes me wonder if the designers have thought any of this through at all. The start screen is a gaudy infantile childish landscape of the most basic kind and whoever thought up the term “Charms Bar” needs taking out the back and given a straight choice of death by firing squad or strangulation by hanging…
An OS should be intuitive enough to be used by Grandma, sophisticated enough to be used by geeks & techies and capable enough to be of real use to Joe Public. It should enable the user to do what they need to do in as intuitive a way as possible but W8 has managed to annoy / confuse / distract / confound in every way possible to the point where there are forums showing how the Start screen can be avoided, how the Start button can be re-introduced, how you can boot into W7 etc etc.
As a Mac user all of this is entirely alien to my way of thinking and my experience with OSX.
It’s no good either for M$ fans to say that after a certain time you can learn all the new tricks of W8 – a good GUI should make plain how to do the basics straight away while allowing users to discover more functionality as they move forward.
Obviously the biggest killer for W8 was to make this the de-facto UI for ALL classes of device. This wouldn’t have been such a bad idea if W8 actually recognised what device it was running on and adapted itself to suit its host environment but as far as I can tell this has not been done. Hint to M$ – phones / tablets / desktops are DIFFERENT beasties! They are used differently and they need different capabilities. Simple enough to understand I would have thought?
Additionally it must have been obvious to M$ that the W7 desktop functionality needed to remain available since real people will still need folders and documents and multiple resizable windows open but when they found that this did not translate well to a touch interface or they did not have the time to adapt it they threw it in as an “app” and instantly created the potential for mass confusion.
Even if you have a touch screen are you really expected to move around with the mouse and every now and again touch the screen to navigate? Really? I wouldn’t want to work that way, I positively hate fingermarks all over my screen…
So where do M$ go from here? If they persist with W8 they will have to re-design a large portion of it to better integrate the desktop environment. If they make the W7 experience better suited to touch everyone will need to upgrade to a touch screen to gain the benefits. If they go the whole hog with W8 and do away with the W7 environment they have a hell of a lot of code to write since this will impact on all of the existing apps that expect to run in W7.
At the end of the day M$ have managed to annoy a whole cross section of their own user base, mosly put off potential new customers and switchers and this does’t even begin to consider what damage they may have done by competing with their own OEM partners. This is idiocy on a truly grand scale – it will be interesting to see how M$ respond to problems entirely of their own making.
“it will be interesting to see how M$ respond to problems entirely of their own making.”
All they’ve ever done is bury their head in the sand over the security issues. Put their hands over their ears about the infringement issues. And covered their mouths with lawyers over monopoly issues. I don’t expect them to respond responsibly in any shape or form this time.
MSZuneTeletubbieWin8 Surface Tablet is the premier “Switch To A Mac” campaign EVER & costs Apple zero dollars.
“many are quite comfortable stretching out the next PC purchase and using a companion device, like an iPad or other tablet. The problem is, they may discover that’s all the computer they need and simply opt out of Windows going forward.”
Yep, that’s about the gist of it.
So, sales are **smooth**….sound familiar?
Yes, sounds like a cold night in 1912. The ocean was smooth as glass and what lay ahead may end up being Microsoft’s fate.
Window still dominate about 80% of user in the world….
Yeah, traditionally so by an anti-competitive means and the general (computer using) public doesn’t know any better!
So did, at one time, the Sony Walkman. How’s that precedent working out?
Way-outdated metric. For this bromide to work, all modern devices must be excluded.
It used to be 95%… Back (not that long ago) when Apple was still struggling and all “computers” were on the desktop or laptop. Today, it’s not even close to 80% (lower), if you count ALL computing devices, including smartphones and tablets.
Its a slow process, Apple left the education market and for years Windows dominated. That fed through into Government and unfortunately they are organisations that take a long time to change anything – because its so expensive to deliver any change in government departments.
Where the Mac and Osx better than Windows 8 Vista 2 ads?
New mac mini, where the ads?
where the imac ads?
No generic Mac ads. Mac PC guy ads stopped in 2009.
No imac ads for years (in my area).
Perhaps you’ve forgotten where you left the Mac marketing guy, find him apple, wake him up, dust him off and ask him to SELL.
with Macs only 5% of world marketshare and more and more realizing win 8 is a turd… strike!
Stop it, we don’t want just anyone using them!
Ok, here’s what’s going to happen.
Gates will start a startup called “VeXt” (a confused computer maker) and a movie studio utilizing equipment from VeXt called “Nixar”. Ballmer will buy VeXt and Gates will come back and fire Ballmer’s ass. Followed by a tweaking of some products, people (espeacially Bloggers) will then start comparing MS to what Apple was when Steve Jobs came back to Apple. And the rest will be opposite to Apples’ history.
Priceless!
What happens when all the PC’s loaded with Windows 7 that were stuffed into the supply channel run out? Then we’ll really see PC sales plummet and pressure on M$ by the OEM’s to allow more Windows 7 PC’s.
I agree Microsoft’s Titanic is heading for an iceberg, but unlike most of you, I am not happy about that. As a long time Mac user of several decades, Apple has the golden handcuffs on me because of the superiority of OSX over Windows, but I hate it that Apple’s focus on money means that they don’t see the need of providing valid hardware choices – particularly anti-glare screens – on iMacs, MacBook Airs, and now Retina MBP’s.
You guys are full of glee at the demise of Microsoft, but I tell you, if you study history, the supporters of Communism, at the fall of imperial Russia, were equally gleeful at the coming of Communism. Apple is no different. It’s hell bent on just making money, and does not at all see it as a responsibility as a supplier of a growing OS that is needed not just teenyboppers to do their Facebook like’s – but also by working professionals, many of whom need anti-glare screens. Apple’s attitude of “if it’s not profitable, then we can’t please everyone” is fine for making $120billion cash, but it’s not good for the end users who sometimes are in a minority but need support for their working computer needs.
Many of you guys will live to regret this flogging of Microsoft, once you taste what an Apple-dominated world looks like.
If you are a working professional, I’m sure you can buy your own display.
I’m sure mobile working professionals with Macbook Pros and especially Macbook Airs enjoy lugging around an external display.
Am I missing something? Does anti-glare film not work in your area?
Yes you missed something.
chrish1961 specifically said “display” not anti-glare film.
But being everything, to everyone, everywhere, all the time – NO COMPROMISE – is far more realistic and much better, yes?
Excuse me while I iCal your ass…
Oh no wait, I don’t need to!
We’ve already seen what an “Apple Dominated” world looks like.
Despite your doom and gloom handwringing, you can buy any MP3 player you like from simple to baroque. And conversely, you can source your iPod’s music from anywhere you want.
Was this the trajectory of WMA?
What a bizarro post. And as an anonymous coward as well!
Apple equated with communism? BZZZZZT! FAIL! The political ignorance these days is DIRE.
Setting aside the garbage and obsession with anti-glare screens (which as an imaging professional is a complaint for which I have no sympathy)…
Apple Requires Competition.
With worthless Microsoft out-of-the-way, maybe Apple will actually get some competition, as opposed to parasitism. Good riddance Microsoft. You’ve had your 1,000,000,000 second chances. Die already. Get OUT of the way of the future!
Like I said… It’s the El Camino of the post pc era.
http://applefanboy.com/2012/11/20/surface-with-windows-8-the-el-camino-in-the-post-pc-era/
PT must be looking at MDN, I linked this video of an old SNL sketch on this site over Windoze W8.
[hulu id=pmmf9mjkzpu_yaach_4saa width=512]
Microsoft’s attempt to mimic Apple’s culture and approach to sustainable growth is a big failure. The only and easiest way out of this quagmire is to follow the examples of Googledoom or Amazon, operating a business with razor-thin margins. If Microsoft were to adopt this model, this will be the writing-on-the-wall confirmation for the decline of America’s prowess in world affairs.
They will hold out on windows 7 as long as they can ……
CarMax did make the switch to 8 and the mechanics are having issues with the system, just entering work orders ……
“Frankenstein’s monster mix of old and new” that’s one of the best descriptions of windows I ever heard.
I been using windows for quite some time (I’m a support engineer) and I have witnessed how messy has became with every version. Have you noted that the old explorer “file manager” application from windows 2 to version 3.11 still present in the 95, 98 and me editions? And doing absolutely nothing? Same is for several, way too many dlls, ocx and other libraries. If you remove the “themes” from vista and 7 you have the same old control panel and same old consoles (msmc) as windows 2000 and XP.
Yes, it’s always reminded me of a seedy Victorian mansion, layer upon layer of wallpaper, attic jammed with steamer trunks and stuffed owls, sash windows painted shut.
Why do I need to upgrade to windiws 8 ?? I can play all my favorite games on windows 7 .
Definition of an oxymoron:
Upgrading to Windows 8
A “bellwether” is a sheep leading sheep. How appropriate is that!
Hmmmm. I wonder why.
They are really UGLY products !!!
I don’t see why anyone would want a windows
phone !! I know a person who has one ,
man is it ugly !!!!!
oxymoron of the day:
Intuitive Microsoft
Windows phone? DOA.
Surface? A *really* bad choice to release RT first. IT will also fail.
WIndows 8 on desktops? Unfortunately, the “Walmart shopper” mentality of US consumers will keep it alive for a long time. They can’t see past sticker price…
MS is not worried. The forced monopoly, pawns of the business world and their IT/CIO Generals will make sure the revenue stream in the billions will continue for Microsoft! Ballsmear is even wetter than before.
Nice blog post .
alley-parking