Direct X 11.1 is Windows 8 exclusive, no plans to retrofit

Paul Thurrott of Winsupersite has inside info that Windows 8 has tanked:

Sales of Windows 8 PCs are well below Microsoft’s internal projections and have been described inside the company as disappointing.

Meanwhile, a leading usability consultant slams Windows 8:

A leading usability consultant claims Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows 8, is "a monster that terrorizes poor office workers and strangles their productivity."

Fun times. At least most people have stopped pretending that Sinofsky stepped down voluntarily.
 
The sources are rock solid, but I will wait for official numbers before making a new thread. Many people are still in denial about this, no reason to rile them up just yet :)
 
If true, will you have more faith in consumers next time ;)

I wouldn't hold my breath. If Julie Larson-Green was largely responsible for Windows 8's most critically derided feature, the Metro interface, is she really going to be able to swallow her pride and scale back its use now that she is the Windows lead?
 
If true, will you have more faith in consumers next time ;)

No, because in the end consumers still don't have a choice. Moving forward all new computers will come with Windows 8, it will be next to impossible to find some with Win 7. That's not a healthy market. Disappointing sales may make Microsoft reconsider some of their choices, but in the end they are still a practical monopoly and will sell tons of Win8 licences, just like with Vista.

Newegg's senior VP of product management admits that Windows 8 sales are 'slow going':

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/140839-windows-8-sales-are-slow-going-says-newegg
 
Paul Thurrott of Winsupersite has inside info that Windows 8 has tanked:

Paul Thurrott sources also say the surface is well above Microsoft’s loftiest projections.

And I was told by two sources a week ago that sales of the existing Surface model, which runs Windows RT, had in fact been well above Microsoft’s loftiest projections. Microsoft, of course, sold out of each Surface model in the run-up to the launch on October 26, though a quick scan of the Microsoft Store online suggests that the firm has caught up with demand.

Looks like Windows 8 will only sale 400 to 500 Million.
 
No, because in the end consumers still don't have a choice. Moving forward all new computers will come with Windows 8, it will be next to impossible to find some with Win 7. That's not a healthy market. Disappointing sales may make Microsoft reconsider some of their choices, but in the end they are still a practical monopoly and will sell tons of Win8 licences, just like with Vista.

Newegg's senior VP of product management admits that Windows 8 sales are 'slow going':

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/140839-windows-8-sales-are-slow-going-says-newegg

I love all the updates you give and am quite grateful. But do you have an RSS feed entitled "Fuck Windows 8" or something?! Where do you find all this news so quickly :D
 
:D I just visit an assortment of gaming and tech news every other day or so, most news are recycled between them anyway so it's not that hard to keep up.
 
Do you guys even read the articles you post or are you happy enough to just selectively read headlines that satisfy your confirmation bias? I mean, Thurrott's own article - literally the only source of the "below projections" thing - points out that most of the best Windows 8 machines aren't even available to buy yet. Those that have been available since launch are mostly crap outside of the Acer Aspire S7 and the Yoga, and others are only slowly trickling in. Even those available since launch have had shoddy supply all the way too.

Considering that few people are actually going to buy PCs right before the holidays - especially when supply and variety is crappy - this isn't a surprise at all.

I'm not saying that customers aren't rejecting Windows 8, but there's certainly no compelling evidence that they are either.


I'm also dubious that Thurrott's source is actually valid, considering that few people within Microsoft would have access to projections, and even fewer would have access to both projections and sales numbers.
 
It's always prudent to wait for official numvers before drawing conclusions, however there shouldn't be any doubt that Windows 8 hasn't exactly set the world on fire, as both Thurrott's info and Newegg's data point to a rather lackluster launch. Maybe it picks up later, we'll see.

However, both Thurrott and Jacob Nielsen highlight important usability issues with Windows 8, issues that should have been apparent from the start. They're not 'fear of change', as the pro-W8 camp usually labels them. Instead of a true hybrid OS (which would have been great) it's just a tablet OS and a desktop OS awkwardly stapled together. And let's not even go back to the nasty 'Trojan Horse' aspect of it, with Microsoft's new walled-garden approach for Metro.
 
Top Bottom