“The real take-away from Net Applications’ May 2013 release of NetMarketShare monthly operating system statistics is that, as PC sales continue to collapse, Microsoft’s Windows 8 could be a factor behind the plunge,” Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports for ZDNet.
“Windows 8 continues to fall behind Microsoft’s previous top operating system failure, Vista, and Windows is no longer the dominant end-user operating system when PCs, smartphones and tablets are considered,” Vaughan-Nichols reports. “Windows 8’s month-over-month growth rate is lagging further and further behind Vista’s dreadful 2007 adoption numbers. When comparing the operating systems when they were first launched, Windows 8’s adoption rate in its first month trailed Vista by just over half-a-percent among PC buyers. Now, in their 8th month out, Vista’s market-share numbers now lead Windows 8 by 3.64 percent.”
Vaughan-Nichols reports, “NetMarketShare’s mobile operating system statistics show Apple iOS holding the lead with a strong 59.49-percent, followed by Android with 24.4-percent. Java ME, with 10.2-percent and Symbian with 2.06-percent, which aren’t even smartphone operating systems bring up the rear. Below these we find the once mighty Blackberry OS, with a mere 2.06-percent, and all combined versions of Windows Phone with a tiny 1.21-percent. Microsoft’s mobile operating system share is actually worse than it appears. None of its most recent smartphone/tablet operating systems, Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 or RT. even breaks the 0.01-percent mark on NetMarketShare’s mobile/tablet operating system market share chart.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Who’da thunk it? “Windows 8ista” was a compliment!
Like a fish out of water?
It’s the typical long-time Windows user who probably feels like that “fish out of water”…
Amazingly, the latest version of Mac OS X makes traditional Windows users feel more “at home” than the latest version of Windows.
how hard is needed to kill it?
Not so much…
Windows is like cancer, you can take chemotherapy (Vista) or you can take radiation therapy (Windows8)…the only real cure is OSX.
well, except there is no chance for remission with any kinda Windows.
Bringing back the Start button to W8 and/or Sr. Executives “realignment” are just windows dressing which will neither wow-back defected customers nor bring in new customers, what Microsoft needs now is a complete overhaul (It’ll be next to impossible) of its corporate culture.
Microsoft continue milking its Windows OS and Office products to fund other revenue losing products such as Bing, XBox…etc. I doubt this practice is sustainable.
Hey Microsoft, perhaps you neglect to notice that keep printing out Windows/Office licenses stickers are not a good way to keep business afloat.
my 2 cents…
But haven’t you seen the commercials?
It doesn’t do PowerPoint.
Cool. I’m glad they brought back that super intuitive button. Click “Start” to turn off your Computer. Microsoft is soooo smart. Amazing.
The Famous Windows Start Button…
how foolish, I mean, I flick the switch to power on the machine, the system boots usually. I figure, the damn thing has already started, doh. What the hell is this Button got to do with anything. Retarded Redmond.
Does a door mat flop hard?
Long may Steve Ballmer’s reign of terror continue.
lol, “reign of error.”
POLICE – he will always be the King of Pain.
Windows 8 needs a shot of Viagra it seems. Nothing is worse than flopping hard.
You are right, It is their SOFTware that is flopping….. !-)
Que up John Lennon :
Number Nine…….
Number Nine…….
Number Nine…….
“You say you want evolutionnnnn…
Well-ell you knnoow-oohh
iOS X is the way to go!”
“But if you go talking about
Chairman Ballmer.
His products will end up
with an embalmer!”
“Don’t you know it’s gonna be, Apple…
Don’t you know it’s gonna be, Apple…
Don’t you know it’s gonna be, Apple…”
guitar rift insert here…
Listen! When you play it backwards, it says “Microsoft is dead!”
This is where the PC industry’s reliance on Microsoft has led. To a dead end, where they have no viable option other than offering more expensive less efficient PCs, with an OS that no one wants.
Meanwhile, Apple provides Windows users with not one but TWO “detours” around the Windows wreckage, toward the future of “personal computing.”
Windows 8.1, the polishing of a turd.
To get this low a ranking, people buying the new Windows PC boxes must be clearing and reformatting the NEW PC boxes and installing an old Windows OS. This is really funnier that you think.
Keep up the good work Microsoft and Ballmer. Ever think about trying to buy Apple’s OS and get the box to boot up with your screen? Never know. It could work and Samsung can help you with that copying if you do not want to tell Apple about what you are doing.
HP, Dell, and others are still offering many of their PCs with Windows 7.
Microsoft needs to take the hint and offer Windows 7.1, instead of 8.1. Transition Windows 8 into a tablet-only OS, and don’t even call it “Windows” anymore.
I think this has more to do with it being the post pc era that anything else, sure 8 sucks but not as bad as vista did.
Yes, Windows 8 DOES “suck” more than Vista. Not in terms of initial bugs, but in terms of intentional design. You can fix bugs; you cannot fix the overall design of the OS, without releasing a whole new version.
Windows 8 makes touching the screen an integral part of using the computer, by design. That’s fine for a tablet, but it burdens the majority of PCs being sold (laptops and desktops) with the need to have a touchscreen to be fully functional.
Customers who want a tablet are going for iPad. Customers who use a “regular” (non-touch) laptop or desktop computer are staying with their existing computers as long as possible, because Windows 8 does not offering anything new or compelling for them. Or they are considering a Mac more and more, as their next “PC.”
How is Vista not better than Windows 8!?
I’d take being barraged with UAC messages over being barraged with Metro any day of the week.
Um, that’s a tough question.
From a practical standpoint, at least Windows 8 is usable if you’re willing and able to deal with the infliction of the Metro (‘Modern’) GUI into your computer usage.
On the other hand, Vista was painful to the point of being UNUSABLE unless you were willing to waste hours overcoming the incredible problems. Vista had a seriously dire HATE-Factor from users. Microsoft also contributed to the problems by LYING to users about Vista compatible hardware.
Then again, the Microsoft inflicted hardware requirement of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) for Windows 8 compatible computers is ticking off a lot of potential users. So…
For most people a Windows UI that’s different, is one that’s worse.
Most people don’t “use Windows”, they use a computer that happens to run Windows. They don’t love the thing, they grudgingly learn how to use it.
Microsoft somehow thought the problem with Vista was technical. But most people hated it because it changed stuff. Windows 8 changed even more stuff. Average people hate it even more.
The number of Apple devices in the market and with the word of mouth, it may finally be having effect.
You have to wonder, is it Windows 8 or is it really cheaper mobile devices that you can take with you in your pocket? Why buy a new Windows 8 machine when you can do it all on your iPhone and/or iPad or . Balmer’s biggest mess up has always been letting Apple steal the smartphone and tablet market away.
Certainly ipads and mobile are taking sales but Windows 8 is also to blame.
The OS is such a PITA to use that any company other than MS would have killed it off in the QA lab.
Every other windows release has to take a bullet for the next release. Its been this way since v1.0!
Part of Microsoft’s problem is that people really don’t need to upgrade their OS any longer. Unless the company is adding compelling new features, or making it inexpensive (or like Apple, adding features and keeping the price cheap), there’s not much of a reason to upgrade. And on Windows PCs, upgrading the OS is a whoop-ass can of headaches ready to open, so most users don’t even want to think about it.
Most users recall the nightmare of finding printer drivers, graphics card drivers, optical drive drivers, etc. for Vista, only to find out after installing Vista that there aren’t any updated drivers for their older product. Software didn’t work correctly, files may get lost, etc., such that most people said the upgrade simply wasn’t worth the hours upon hours of time wasted trying to get their computer to run like it did before.
Combined with the fact that few people need to buy a new computer more than every 3-5 years, there’s no real incentive (and lots of disincentives) to upgrading Windows. It’s not like this is going from Win 3.1 to Win 95; Win 8 is just more of the same, only with the Metro interface (sometimes) getting in the way and other stuff moved around.
The Modern UI (née Metro) has been proven, embarrassingly, to be NOT a big selling point, but an actual deterrent to sales of Windows 8 licences—first by the denunciations of putatively reliable Microsoft favouritists who wrote scathing pre-release reviews that poisoned the atmosphere for uptake of the new OS; then by its rejection by OEMs panicking over declining sales of their conventional PCs, and seething at Microsoft’s high-handed tactics; crucially, by the marketplace, who regarded Windows 8 as a curiosity like pickled watermelon rinds at a county fair; and finally by Microsoft itself, who tried and failed to play up its brainchild with a head-scratching advertising campaign, then caved in and ginned up a version 8.1 to roll it back to something more like the familiar Windows 7 that folks might tolerate or even, you know, actually use.
Microsloth should have named their latest OS Windows Busted.
Tonight I gave a talk at the local PC user group about what’s new in Windows 8.1 beta. [Setting aside the compliments after the talk 😉 ….] The number one comment was from people saying “I still can’t figure out why I’d want to use Windows 8”. One fellow asked me if Microsoft is trying to sell more Macs and Linux PCs as well as trying to kill their Enterprise sales.
I completely avoid getting into the Computer Warz when I work with user groups. It’s not the correct environment for computer contention (unlike here at MDN). But I always find it amusing when Windows PC users tell me how, ahem, displeased they are with Microsoft. 😀
I detect a slightly strong bias towards mac’s than windows machines so how on earth can you be expected to say anything else?!
Oh yeah, Mac preference, dumped my PC in 1993. But I still use Windows for odds and ends, including keeping up with what’s going on with the platform.
No one expects me to say anything but what’s on my mind. But no one in the group is anti-Apple. I’m used to working with Windows users professionally and rarely get into Computer Warz with them. It’s a question of what’s the right place for specific behavior.
I do remember a rabid Windows bigot raving at me in an interview about how much Macs sucked for color management, which of course is utterly hilarious. This was in 1997 when the color management in Windows was just about nil. Here was a pro blasting me with BS. In a case like that, I provide factual information. If a bigot wants to argue about facts, that’s up to them. And so forth.
The article itself reads very differently than MDN’s summary. The headline: “Windows 8 is growing its share as people replace their old PCs, and despite vocal threats, no one appears to have replaced their Windows PC with a Mac or Linux.” “Windows users aren’t deserting the platform for OS X and Linux. Last October, OS X and Linux usage added up to 8.3 percent. Seven months after the launch of Windows 8, the combined share has not budged and is still at 8.3 percent.”
I have a home full of iPads, iPhones and Macs, but that doesn’t stop me from appreciating what Microsoft did with 8. After years (decades?) of being slow and staid, MS completely changed the main user interface so the same OS could work with everything. Why have artificial barriers between laptops, desktops and tablets?
MS bet their users would follow them to a brave new world, and they bet wrong. Windows users don’t like change.
I used an HP hybrid for 10 days. With the Atom processor it booted up in 10 seconds from a cold start, and battery life was hours longer than my iPad 3. We’re seeing a rapid design evolution from PC makers. Just like biological evolution, some designs work and some don’t but at least it’s an interesting time in the tech world. It’s been like what -280 days? – since Apple has released a new product.
That said, W8 is barely usable and it deserves the market rejection it’s getting. Windows RT was DOA, but once 8.1 and eventually 9 come out, people are going to adopt it, and the Windows tablets will take market share from Apple. I hope Apple has a credible plan for iOS and OS X going forward, because right now it looks like Apple is neglecting OS X development.
> That said, W8 is barely usable and it deserves the market rejection it’s getting…
LOL at your “in summary” statement. 8.1 is just 8 with a “start” button (and a few other tweaks). “Windows 9” (or whatever is is called to get rid of the bad taste of Windows 8.x) will be Microsoft backtracking to Windows 7, before they lose everything.
8.1 also adds all of the control panel functionality to the start menu interface which should result in fewer trips to the old desktop. And it gives the option to boot directly to the desktop which will make it a lot more usable for non-touch machines. So yes, it’s backtracking to Win 7 (and should have always been an option) but the user still gets the 10 second boot time and access to the Windows app store if they choose.
FYI – I returned the HP machine and found a good deal on a 64 GB iPad. The iPad does what I need without the hassle of maintaining and protecting a legacy desktop system too (i.e. weekly updates and anti-virus). The iPad is more elegant and the Apple app ecosystem blows away what MS has now.
But recognize that with 92% of the world using Windows, their app ecosystem will get better and Apple can’t sit on its hands and hope the iPad continues to sell because it’s cooler. For many, the ability to buy one tablet to run touch apps as well as desktop programs such as Lightroom is compelling. People will one day begin to ask Apple why they need to buy an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac when 1 or 2 devices could provide all that functionality.
8.1 may have those changes, but it will make very little difference in the minds of customer who just want a “regular” computer. It’s like Microsoft “hacked” their own OS to make it less annoying to non-tablet users, while not really changing anything meaningful. And for customers who want a tablet, they will do what you did… Get an iPad. So, Windows 8/8.1 is targeted at NO ONE.
The next major release of Windows will be Microsoft panicking and retreating back to “Windows 7 Version 2.” It will be designed to put users of traditional non-touch computers (laptops and desktops) first. Windows 8.x will continue on, optimized for tablet users.
> But recognize that with 92% of the world using Windows
Your statistic chooses to include Windows-based tablets, but ignores iPads. It is flawed. If you included ALL computing devices (including iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch), Apple’s current share of “personal computing” is FAR larger.
> For many, the ability to buy one tablet to run touch apps as well as desktop programs… is compelling.
Not that many, based on Windows 8 results. If this was even mildly compelling to most customers, Windows 8 would be doing much better.
> People will one day begin to ask Apple why they need to buy an iPhone, iPad, MacBook and iMac when 1 or 2 devices could provide all that functionality.
That’s exactly what Apple wants customers to ask. Why do I need a Windows PC (or a Mac) these days, when an iPad can do everything I need? That’s partly why PC sales are flat or dropping, while iPad sales are growing. And for customers who do not want to use a tablet, Apple’s ongoing commitment to the “traditional” desktop and laptop computer is quite obvious. Mac OS X makes NO compromises to being a touch-based OS.
Make the best products (optimized for its purpose) and let the customers decide which one (or ones) they way to use.
Don’t see a problem. The quicker we get rid of the weed in our garden that is Microsoft the better.
I hope they step it up. We need more competition.