“Calling the latest operating system a ‘failure’ and Microsoft’s leaders ‘idiots,’ a top tech website has proclaimed the PC era over. Windows is coming to a dead end, they say,” FoxNews.com reports. “PC shipments collapsed in the last quarter by almost 14 percent, analysts with IDC said last week, marking the biggest drop in sales since the firm started tracking them 19 years ago.”
“The problem, said ZDNet’s well respected Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols, isn’t the designs from the likes of HP and Dell or the size of consumer’s wallets. It’s Microsoft,” FoxNews.com reports. “‘Look at the numbers: Metro-interface operating systems have already failed,’ Vaughn-Nichols wrote in an essay on the site. ‘Microsoft is betting all its chips on the silly notion that Metro will be the one true interface for its entire PC and device line.’ ‘Idiots,’ he wrote.”
“While Vaugh-Nichols is clearly opinionated, his perspective was supported by IDC analyst Jay Chou, who told The Wall Street Journal a similar story last week: ‘The reaction to Windows 8 is real,'” FoxNews.com reports. “Windows 8, released Oct. 25, 2012, transformed the traditional computer interface to reflect a growing dependence on tablet computers and touch interface. It wraps the ‘desktop’ metaphor that most people have grown comfortable in a blanket of multicolored tiles that shift and twinkle, revealing bits of information and inviting the user to poke at them. The problem: the vast majority of laptop and desktop users have no way to poke. Most users will find this new interface language as shocking (and hard to work with) as a bucket of cold water the face.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we explained rather presciently, all the way back in June 2011:
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.
Microsoft is staffed with stupid and/or lazy people. There’s no other explanation besides crippling narcissism – which is a very real possibility. Most people use iPads while lounging around. All Microsoft’s Surface “team” had to do was buy some real iPads and use them for a few weeks. Steve Jobs himself even demonstrated the iPad while reclining in a comfy leather chair, not sitting upright at a friggin’ desk. Microsoft was shown the way and, once again, they failed to properly follow Apple’s lead. By now, that’s just stupid and/or lazy.
Microsoft suffers from delusions of grandeur. They think they matter and that people will buy their pretend iPad over other pretend iPads because it’s from Microsoft. Microsoft does not matter. Microsoft no longer has the power to sell superfluous products. The world already has iPad. The thinking world finally woke up and moved on from Microsoft’s soul-sapping dreck. That clueless Microsoft haven’t figured this out years ago (Zune, Kin, how many total face-plants do they need?) is illustrative of the depths of their delusions.
As with Zune, Kin, and Surface, Microsoft is unnecessary in today’s world. Their rapidly retiring/expiring IT Doofus firewall is the only thing keeping them around today.
And that’s not going to last much longer, either:
Gartner: By 2014, Apple will be as accepted by enterprise IT as Microsoft is today – February 4, 2013
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “orenokoto” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Steve Jobs’ revenge – April 12, 2013
Microsoft’s stock takes beating after putrid Windows PC shipment reports – April 11, 2013
Apple Macintosh on the rise as Windows PC market plummets – April 11, 2013
Gartner and IDC trumpet wildly incongruous Mac unti sales estimates – April 11, 2013
Gartner: PC Market posts 11.2 percent decline in Q113; Apple Mac sales up 7.4 percent in U.S. – April 10, 2013
IDC: PC shipments post the steepest decline ever in a single quarter, down 13.9% in Q113 – April 10, 2013
Tough meat takes a long time to get “done”.
Yeah, things which are none-organic decompose at a much slower rate. MacroSloth is a huge slow to change plastic garbage bag. It has been in the process of decomposing for a few decades now. Vista was a failure. Zune was a failure. Metro now… what was the last great MacroSloth success Win98? See decades.
Apple should write a check to Microsoft for $150 million plus interest for the help Gates boy gave Mr Jobs back in the 90’s.
That way they are even, and can sit back and watch the Microsoft ship flood all the way below level.
RIP Microsoft. Tchau!
Microsoft sold the stock they received long ago. AAPL owes M$ nothing.
The $150 million investment was negligible at the time. Apple still had a couple billion in the bank. What was important at the time was that MS committed to keeping Office on the Mac for at least 5 years.
But Office was still relevant back then.
Wasn’t that “investment” part of the settlement for the Apple/Microsoft lawsuit over “look and feel.” Basically, Apple’s best choice was to settle that suit because Microsoft somehow was able to argue that Apple had licensed these aspects of their OS to MS due to some technicality, probably related to Apple opening up their OS to MS because they were writing applications like Word, Excel, Works… exclusively for Mac, long before Windows appeared. So, Steve Jobs figured, why not settle with MS, hug and kiss and make up… as long as Bill Gates committed to continuing development of Office for Mac for those above mentioned 5 years. This gave Jobs the ability to stem the Mac market share losses at the time, and buy enough time to simplify the product line, develop OSX, and get the iPod and iTunes store off and running. It had little to do with Microsoft helping Apple out, but was a mutually beneficial settlement at the time. Microsoft made good money on that investment, but could have done even better if they had held it longer.
Microsoft sold their shares for a hefty profit a loooooong time ago. No need to write any more checks to Microsoft.
Yeah but think about how much heftier it was last September. Been worth billions. Another Microsoft FAIL.
Ciao?
Say “Goodnight” Gracie…
Goodnight, George.
My business partner just got a new HP laptop to replace his old laptop. The new one runs Windows 8 and in the last week he has spent more time swimming through the endless sea of settings trying to set it up as he likes than actual work.
The metro interface just gets in the way of everything you want to do. Windows 8 is just a piece of crap.
Needless to say, it makes my argument to change the whole office to Mac.
You should T-bone your partner’s f***ed up HP craptop right into his twat face. You should ram it so hard in his face that he sees Mac stars dancing in front of his eyes.
How old are you?
What’s his shoe size? 😎
revenge is sweet
the truth will free
BLN is harsh yet righteous
Who the hell is this frickin’ idiot?
Is he a fat little baby in his pram?
Windows 8 sounds so brilliantly bad I almost want to credit it to the Mr. Jobs somehow. The final poisonous dart in the broad neck of Microsoft.
Maybe Microsoft just took all the stuff that Steve said NO to, packed it into a dense ball, slathered it with Ballmer sweat, then excreted it onto all those shinny new computers. 😛
Turn it into a hackintosh – its the only half decent thing for an HP. A Boat anchor would be ideal however
It’s more eco-friendly to use them to hold elevator doors open, prop up leaning bookcases, or my personal favorite: slip it under a sofa cushion to restore a stiffer sitting support to a tired sofa!
Ironically, it was an HP laptop that finally got a colleague to move to Mac.
He used to mock my preference for Apple and Mac. Then he encountered a problem with Windows that had him sitting on the phone with HP tech support, talking for hours to a guy with a foreign accent. (Bangalore?) By the time he was done the laptop was unbootable. He threw up his hands, took a trip down to the nearest Apple store, and walked out with a 24″ iMac.
Saw a bunch of Win8 laptops at Staples. Swiped the screen on one. Nothing. Tried several times. Nothing. A helpful sales person offered, “That one doesn’t have a touch screen.” And a person knows that how? Tried the touch pad–yup, no multi-touch. Just turned and walked away.
A corporate culture that learned nothing from the Vista debacle? Incredible.
Why would they? They learned nothing from the Windows ME debacle previously.
People need to realize this about Microsoft’s investment in Apple, it was NOT a loan. Microsoft made a huge profit.
Steve Jobs announced that Microsoft would be making an investment of 150,000 shares in Apple (Series A, non voting, convertible preferred stock) worth about 150 million dollars. These shares would have been converible after a period of 3 years (2000) into common stock at a conversion price of $8.25. By 2001, all shares had been converted into Apple common stock, and in 2003, were sold by Microsoft.
Something is wrong with your math???? 150,000 shares at 150,000,000 is 1000$ per share.
Around 2000 the stock was about 10$ per share so that would be 1,500,000 shares…. today that would be about $ 750 million.
Anyone else got a calculator here?
It will be interesting how the drop in PC sales will affect M$’s bottom line. At the same time as this is happening, Win8 sales have stunk and their tablet failed to excite.
Recently M$ have grown their revenue and profit mainly due to Office and Server sales. But if their sales in OS and tablets are hurting them they may start showing a sharp decrease in either revenue or profit.
When I wrote a book on Cubase 6, I described the installation process using Windows 7 as a three step process: Start button, computer, DVD icon. Earlier this year, I updated the book for Cubase 7 and Windows 8, and now the installation process is seven obtrusive steps just to get to the %^*# DVD icon. The list of similar user-hostile hoops to jump through keeps growing and growing.
Boast nutheads if you even surpass Windows XP user-base. W8 is a long playaaa getting better every iteration that will not be dead.
Your inarticulateness is indicative of the Micro-soft-in-the-brain disease of which your ilk suffers. Your type is merely pitied here. Unless of course this is a parody of a Windows fantard.
Clearly composed using MS Word.
If you use M$oft spellchecker and grammar checker, then this is the sort of crap that comes out.
Wait! Before sticking a fork in it beware it will release 30 or so years of stinking, festering, putrid gases.
Bad joke aside, Windows really is done. The convergence of iPad (and iPhone) plus Windows 8 appears to be the calamity befalling Microsoft we all knew was bound to happen at some point. But before we all get too excited, remember that the outcome of such seismic shifts often have unintended and unpleasant consequences. For instance, we could just be exchanging one known bad for another. In this case Microsoft dies and a really horrid offshoot of Android finds it way to the PC (already has to some extent with Chrome OS) to satisfy the slack-jawed masses who want no other experience with their technology than free and/or cheap as possible. At least we knew how to keep Microsoft in a corner.
In other words, be careful what you wish for…you just might get it.
All that aside, the schadenfreude is beautiful, wonderful and I’m reveling in it. I consider this pay back for all the months of hell I spent working on Windows at work before I was permitted to switch to Mac.
I don’t believe that it’s the sole fact that they’ve failed at “making a Jack of all trades” OS. In fact I believe they’re on a much truer path and further down that road then Apple is with it’s OSX and iOS migration (which will happen just like Windows 8 is trying to do) I think that the true reason is a multitude of them. Mostly having to do with the tablet and smartphone growth. Most people are just relying on these devices more and are not interested in buying new PC hardware. I think a time in the near future we’ll see a resurgence of PC and Mac sales and it may be that Mac OS takes more marketshare from MS, but Microsoft is by no means “dead”. They continue to innovate and drive into new markets just like Apple and Google. These three companies will be around for some time and they’ll have their place in our lives. Some people will choose not to do business with one or another for their reasons, but each of them have there strengths and weaknesses.
“In fact I believe they’re on a much truer path and further down that road then Apple is with it’s OSX and iOS migration (which will happen just like Windows 8 is trying to do)”
Are you trying to be funny?
Apple really is at least 5 years farther down that road than MS, just as Jobs said. First, Apple already “migrated” to its new OS in 2001. Then it started successfully porting that OS back and forth to various platforms (PowerPC, Intel, ARM) — something that MS has yet to do with its legacy crapware.
Then, having written the book on ARM as a founding member, Apple went on to master mobile device creation and ecosystem integration with its iPods (and still holds most of MP3 player market). In the same time frame, MS has dabbled with hardware and failed, as it tries to take decent off the shelf devices and turn them into Microsoft’s monster (Zune, Kin, etc.).
Meanwhile, Apple long ago decided that a “mobile OS” was not good enough for its envisioned tablets and phones, and instead of starting from Newton or iPod starting point, it went for paring down OS X instead.
For some reason, the common misperception is that Apple is trying to merge two disparate entities into one, a la MS, and just doesn’t know how to get there. Hey, it was already one, but Apple recognized that the Touch paradigm was worth rethinking several top layers of its desktop OS.
Meanwhile, MS calls everything and anything “Windows”, apparently for its *cachet* (they are delusional, what can I say?), but their “RT” and “Desktop” OS’s are NOT as closely related as iOS and OS X, despite the fact that both names contain “Windows”. The only thing close about them is that they are both slung on tablets and PCs, so that confusion continues to reign supreme, and yes, MS is indeed worthy of the epithet: Jack of all trades, master of none.
“Fork in Windows”
Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I said that…or something similar…;-)
Windows 8.1 will let it back on the Start Track…as 3rd party software already has allowed.
Just another ME/Vista pothole to be filled.
Microsoft has four problems, none of which is the competence of their developers and designers. They are as follows:
1. Microsoft does its performance reviews on a curve. Every group has to have a worst performer, who gets fired. Even the best developers have to spend too much time on office politics, undercutting each other to keep their jobs.
2. Decisions are made by managers, not experts, on a relatively low level. Since managers can override designers, even the color choices are bad. Since they don’t have to coordinate with each other, things are inconsistent.
3. Microsoft has its eyes on the cash register. It doesn’t realize that if the users don’t like it, the buyers won’t buy it.
4. Microsoft thinks that it can force change in hardware and software. One of the design goals of Vista was to force users to upgrade their hardware to increase their hardware partners’ sales. There was no transition to the ribbon, or to the interface formerly known as Metro.
I still think in a gracious gesture, Apple should give MicroSoft a sum of $150 million to help them out. Of course, it will not cure their woes.
But, it would be a great way to respond to all the MS lemmings who say the MS saved Apple.
I predict Windows XP and 7 will have relatively long lives. The software available for the platform is simply to great for the world to “stick a fork in it”.
Windows 8, not so much. Nobody likes it.
Until Apple has a majority share of in-use computer operating systems, it would be unwise to predict premature death for the market leader. Hey, don’t feel bad. Hyundai outsells Porsche too.
Nothing people here did’t already know.
B… b… b… but Microsoft has TV commercials with hip/trendy office people click-clackking their surface tablets, jumping up and down and dancing on tables! It’s great advertising, and as we all know, advertising was the ONLY reason that got people to buy Apple products! It’s all about how cool and hip it is — right?
*sarcasm – in case you couldn’t tell*