6 ms·

Windows 8 Sales Disappoint in Shaky PC Market

62 points by ssclafani 14y ago

cryptoz 14y ago
I spent two hours today trying to buy Nexus 7 at a popular mall with many electronic stores. Not possible. Not even close. There were about 30 different Windows 8 computers I could have bought instead, with lots of stock. But no thank you!
- psbp 14y ago
  I recently started using a Nexus 7. It's such an incredible little device. I think Apple and Microsoft should be worried about the potent mix of Android software and great hardware.
  - randomfool 14y ago
    The cheap device that rocks at web, email & facebook is a solid solution. I really do think that Microsoft miscalculated by going for the high-end tablet market rather than the budget device market.
Shenglong 14y ago
I don't know if Windows 8 induced PC sales can be compared to previous versions. The upgrade from 98/2000/ME/(whatever) to XP seemed, at least to the consumer, like a monumental shift. People expected the same for Vista, and 7 was definitely a revolutionary improvement. But that's it. Windows 7 is a great product, and I don't think anyone is approaching Windows 8 with the mindset that it's going to fix anything with Windows 7. If you buy it, you're probably buying it for the features or the hype. Add that to the hardware stagnation, and there's not much incentive to buy a new machine. Lastly, we have more electronics than we did several years ago, so we've artificially extended the useful life of each machine. Naturally, we're going to renew our PCs less. So, the article got one thing right: tablets, just like phones, are going to play a big part in future sales.
- glogla 14y ago
  Or because you have no choice. Many consumer class laptops now are shipping Windows 8 already, and in a year, it might be impossible to get one with Windows 7. You can downgrade, but only if you have the Pro version, and that won't appear on consumer class laptop.
at-fates-hands 14y ago
The most telling sentence of the whole article: "The trickle of shopping bags leaving the store with merchandise was nothing like the steady stream at a bustling Apple store upstairs." Well, DUH. Apple is deeply rooted in several younger generations. MS is trying to crack this same market and get people to switch to their newly created walled garden. Kind of tough to do when you're fighting uphill against an existing, entrenched market. Not surprisingly, the sales have been slow.
- dangrossman 14y ago
  It's not even just that. Apple Stores have the unique draw of being the only retail outlet you can buy Apple's full selection of products. Given the popularity of those products, it's no wonder they have lots of foot traffic. Microsoft Store has no such unique draw to get people in the door, or to get them to buy anything once they're there. It's a showcase of products you can buy in other stores you've known much longer, and hundreds of websites. Even the unpopular Surface RT is no longer a MS store exclusive with Best Buy carrying it along with the full range of accessories.
  - danso 14y ago
    I don't think that's the main draw for most people, though...most people care about iPads, iPhones, and iPods, which you can get at most major retailers now. Perhaps the service stations at the Apple Stores make it more appealing to go there, but exclusivity doesn't seem to be a main reason to go. I think why Apple has traffic and Microsoft doesn't is because Apple has thoroughly owned the entertainment and luxury image. Microsoft dominated the office, but I think the side effect of that domination is that when you go shopping for PCs, I think it's hard to escape the mentality of "these boxes are similar to those I do my spreadsheets on, 40 hours a week, in that dreary cubicle". Shopping at Apple store feels like a luxury escape: I go frequently even for accessories that are cheaper on Amazon. Shopping at a Microsoft store will unfortunately have some of the same appeal as shopping for ink cartridges at Staples.
    - jpxxx 14y ago
3amOpsGuy 14y ago
I've been evaluating Win8 on behalf of an old client I still sometimes help out. It's nowhere near as bad as the press has been making out. It's certainly different but I can point out a larger volume of improvements than the measly 3 obvious regressions.
- windsurfer 14y ago
  Compare Windows 8 to OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows 7. Where would you say it ranks?
  - Empro 14y ago
    Better than all of them.
    - gabemart 14y ago
      I find it hard to imagine someone in the hacker news crowd rating 8 over 7 on developer hardware. From my limited experience, the only major improvement I noticed was the improved task manager (which is really nifty). What other substantial improvements over 7 do you think Win8 provides?
      - isaacwaller 14y ago
        (I am not the original poster) * improved file copy dialog, including pausing * much faster boot * improved task manager (as you said) * better multi-monitor support (I have 2 monitors) It's not much but was worth the $30 upgrade. I don't mind the new start screen but I understand that is subjective.
        MattDL 14y ago
        Isn't the faster booting thing just exactly the same as only using hibernate on Windows 7? Granted I haven't looked into it fully but I doubt the actual cold boot speeds vary wildly between the two.
randomfool 14y ago
Lots of theories, but it's only a month 'till MSFT Q4 results on Jan 24. Will be interesting what the numbers look like and how Microsoft explains them.
elliatab 14y ago
I think a turning point will be a combination of great Windows 8 apps and nice hardware. Concerning the hardware I am surprised to see very attractive stuffs here in Japan. The Fujitsu Arrows tab here is an example: http://www.fmworld.net/arrows/tab_wifi/qh/ http://www.fmworld.net/arrows/tab_wifi/qh/ It is featuring an Atom CPU so it's running the full Windows 8 (not the RT version) so it means you can really use whatever Windows software you've been using before on this machine. I believe the idea of having a single device replacing the desktop and the tablet is still attractive to many users. It will take some time for PC-makers to propose compelling offers but 2013 may be that time
zaidf 14y ago
It used to be that a new version of the Windows operating system was enough to get people excited about buying a new computer, giving sales a nice pop. Vague statements like above make me wish papers like NYT published detailed sources. My entire family has been on Windows for around 15 years and not once do I remember getting excited about the upgrade...and yet, we've done the upgrade. My family could be atypical but that is why I wish I had the source behind the article lead.
- brisance 14y ago
  Windows 95 which is 17 years ago. I remember people camping out for it.
  - lesterbuck 14y ago
    I remember "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones licensed by Microsoft as the center of their advertising campaign. That is really a catchy riff and it worked very well to generate buzz about the launch. (Windows 95 introduced the Start button.) The common television ads for Windows 8 seemed built around synchronized opening and closing of tablets/laptops. My, how the mighty have fallen.
jpxxx 14y ago
I think folks are too quick to point to the iPad (& misc. tablets) as the cause of Win8's apparent downfall. PC vendors bungled this one on their own. It's a shitty economy and Microsoft & Friends are offering tired form factors, severe usability regressions, bad word of mouth, a bifurcation of Windows into two conceptually incompatible product lines, a meaningless brand, useless marketing, and poor developer incentives to migrate to the App Store model. Then consider how 'Microsoft Surface' is muddying every message with mixed reviews, poor availability, atrocious marketing, OEM alienation, and incoherent product segmentation. Windows 8 was a flop on its own terms, and Microsoft doesn't have the luxury of working in a vacuum anymore.
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  Do you mean "Surface" the touch table, or "Surface Windows RT", or "Surface Pro"?
  - xorgar831 14y ago
    Along those lines, what compelling innovations are there? I've even used a Surface before, and still have no idea what I should get excited about.
  - jpxxx 14y ago
    Whichever one comes with the touch cover... er, I mean the type cover. I mean the colorful one that is a keyboard but isn't a keyboard but I can type on it fast but just not as fast as a real keyboard but it's a real keyboard which makes this a laptop but it's not. It comes included, right?
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    Exactly.
  - threepointone 14y ago
    Yes.
- dmethvin 14y ago
  You've left out things like bundled crapware, impossible-to-remove stickers that advertise Intel on the palm rest, horrible tech support, the need for antivirus, the sleazy way the software autorenews at much higher rates, and retail stores that bully you into protection plans that are a bad value. I'm puzzled how PC vendors can be so oblivious to the reasons why people are unimpressed by their products. Most of them just ooze mediocrity. Microsoft is powerless to fix the problem because the OEM owns the customer and Windows is just a component.
smegel 14y ago
I would have already upgraded to Win8 if it had a real desktop with a real start menu for my dual 27-inchers instead of a friggin touch interface designed for a tablet. Seriously, i don't know what they were smoking when they came up with that one. I still get moderately excited by new Windows stuff, after all the PC is not dead yet and i still enjoy building up a dream rig from scratch, even though i probably spend more time on my various Android devices.
- chimeracoder 14y ago
  > I would have already upgraded to Win8 if it had a real desktop with a real start menu for my dual 27-inchers instead of a friggin touch interface designed for a tablet. Walking into Best Buy today, I noticed that almost all the computers had touchscreens. Even the few that also had keyboards in front of them lacked mice. They're clearly betting on the hypothesis that computers in 2/5/10 years won't have mice, those having been replaced altogether by all-in-one monitors. In other words, I don't think the intent is to get Windows 8 installed on existing hardware. I think the intent is to get Windows 8[1] to dominate (and perhaps even drive) new sales. [1] Or, more likely, the successor to Windows 8 - Microsoft customers have always had a pattern of 'skip one, upgrade one', and even without the redesign, Windows 8 falls on one of the 'off' cycles as it is.
  - smegel 14y ago
    Are you saying there were desktop PCs without keyboards? How does that even work?
    - chimeracoder 14y ago
      You'd be surprised how little most non-geeks use the keyboard for much of what they do. Heck, even geeks use tablets for a lot of daily work. In any case, I think this was just for display purposes. The touchscreen is intended more to replace the mouse than to replace the keyboard - at least for now.
  - visualcsharp 14y ago
zmmmmm 14y ago
I really wonder about this: > Only 15 percent of Acer’s current Windows 8 products in North America have touch screens Microsoft made an OS that tries to shove a touch based interface down user's throats. They've gone all in and really committed 100% to it, which is admirable in it's own way: they know a large section of their users will hate this, but they also know their long term survival depends on getting a touch paradigm into their products, so this release is "taking one for the team", and it's not too surprising that sales are poor. But given all of this, why oh why, are ANY products shipping without touch interfaces? This part I don't understand and, I think, points to a major failure on Microsoft's part.
- lessnonymous 14y ago
  When I bought my new laptop, the store was 95% Window 8. And ZERO had a touch screen. I don't get why laptops don't come with a touch screen by default these days.
  - visualcsharp 14y ago
    Probably because most people prefer /not/ to touch their screens, making the screens greasy and cloudy and making their shoulders hurt. Undoubtedly, touch screens increase cost, increase weight and decrease battery life, as well. In other words, there's /very little market demand/.
  - nwh 14y ago
    Hold your arm straight out in front of you. Slowly count to 20. Now you know why.
    - dman 14y ago
      Its winter remove your glove and try to use your touch screen phone. Now do it for 20 more seconds.
      - nwh 14y ago
        I can't relate to that one at all actually, I don't think I've ever been so cold that gloves have impeded my touchscreen use.
buzzkillr2 14y ago
I have bought two windows 8 laptops in the past month and have returned both of them. Windows 8 works nicely, is quick and once you get over the hump of figuring out the unintuitive UI is mostly nice to use. The hardware simply was not up to the task of everyday use as a student. Trackpad, screen quality, keyboard, and battery life were the deal breakers for me.
- cagey 14y ago
  I returned my first (Toshiba) Win8 laptop less than 1 month ago after (a) the (Synaptics Multi-touch) trackpad stopped working entirely (after Win Update pushed Synaptics 16.2.10.3, the version Toshiba authorizes), and (b) even after recovering and switching to 16.2.21 (the newest release from Synaptics' website), it worked very unreliably and the simplest feature (which I require), single-finger scrolling, would not work at all.
petercooper 14y ago
If only Microsoft would make it easy to buy! I installed VMware Fusion yesterday and decided I'd like to have Windows 8 for it. So I looked for a download to buy and Microsoft has one.. an "upgrade" that costs about $40. Except I need something that's from scratch. Long story short, I either have to pay $700 for an MSDN membership or buy and wait for an "OEM" version to come from my favorite PC parts vendor. Let me buy an ISO and a license key fer chrissakes! I am wondering if it's viable to download a pirated ISO and then buy a license key only somehow, but if not, I'll have to buy a disc and rip it on another machine after the holidays.
- af3 14y ago
  not a direct way, but try this [1]. [1] http://slickdeals.net/f/5275360-UPDATE-10-21-EIGHT-LICENSE-KEYS-Windows-8-Professional-Windows-Server-2012-VS-2012-Ultimate-more-FREE-with-42-32-student-membership-to-ACM-IEEE http://slickdeals.net/f/5275360-UPDATE-10-21-EIGHT-LICENSE-K...?
clarky07 14y ago
Just because people aren't shopping in the Windows/Microsoft store doesn't mean nobody is buying Windows 8. 40 million sales in a month is nothing to sneeze at. I haven't tried the tablet version yet, but I have it dual booting on my iMac and it runs just fine. Also, FWIW, I just got a Windows 8 phone (HTC 8x) and have been porting a few of my iPhone apps just as a test of the market. I switched from my iPhone 5 for a week just to test it out and I really liked it. There are still a few apps missing, but for the most part everything I wanted was there. Overall I think I like Windows 8 better than Android though it's close. I'm sticking with my iPhone as I like it just a bit better than both, but they are all pretty close, (and so freaking awesome compared to just a few years ago). To someone who doesn't already have a lock in to one of the platforms I think Windows 8 could be a good competitor.

62 points by ssclafani 14y ago

I spent two hours today trying to buy Nexus 7 at a popular mall with many electronic stores. Not possible. Not even close. There were about 30 different Windows 8 computers I could have bought instead, with lots of stock. But no thank you!

psbp 14y ago
I recently started using a Nexus 7. It's such an incredible little device. I think Apple and Microsoft should be worried about the potent mix of Android software and great hardware.
- randomfool 14y ago
  The cheap device that rocks at web, email & facebook is a solid solution. I really do think that Microsoft miscalculated by going for the high-end tablet market rather than the budget device market.

Shenglong 14y ago

I don't know if Windows 8 induced PC sales can be compared to previous versions. The upgrade from 98/2000/ME/(whatever) to XP seemed, at least to the consumer, like a monumental shift. People expected the same for Vista, and 7 was definitely a revolutionary improvement. But that's it. Windows 7 is a great product, and I don't think anyone is approaching Windows 8 with the mindset that it's going to fix anything with Windows 7. If you buy it, you're probably buying it for the features or the hype. Add that to the hardware stagnation, and there's not much incentive to buy a new machine. Lastly, we have more electronics than we did several years ago, so we've artificially extended the useful life of each machine. Naturally, we're going to renew our PCs less. So, the article got one thing right: tablets, just like phones, are going to play a big part in future sales.

glogla 14y ago
Or because you have no choice. Many consumer class laptops now are shipping Windows 8 already, and in a year, it might be impossible to get one with Windows 7. You can downgrade, but only if you have the Pro version, and that won't appear on consumer class laptop.

at-fates-hands 14y ago

The most telling sentence of the whole article: "The trickle of shopping bags leaving the store with merchandise was nothing like the steady stream at a bustling Apple store upstairs." Well, DUH. Apple is deeply rooted in several younger generations. MS is trying to crack this same market and get people to switch to their newly created walled garden. Kind of tough to do when you're fighting uphill against an existing, entrenched market. Not surprisingly, the sales have been slow.

dangrossman 14y ago
It's not even just that. Apple Stores have the unique draw of being the only retail outlet you can buy Apple's full selection of products. Given the popularity of those products, it's no wonder they have lots of foot traffic. Microsoft Store has no such unique draw to get people in the door, or to get them to buy anything once they're there. It's a showcase of products you can buy in other stores you've known much longer, and hundreds of websites. Even the unpopular Surface RT is no longer a MS store exclusive with Best Buy carrying it along with the full range of accessories.
- danso 14y ago
  I don't think that's the main draw for most people, though...most people care about iPads, iPhones, and iPods, which you can get at most major retailers now. Perhaps the service stations at the Apple Stores make it more appealing to go there, but exclusivity doesn't seem to be a main reason to go. I think why Apple has traffic and Microsoft doesn't is because Apple has thoroughly owned the entertainment and luxury image. Microsoft dominated the office, but I think the side effect of that domination is that when you go shopping for PCs, I think it's hard to escape the mentality of "these boxes are similar to those I do my spreadsheets on, 40 hours a week, in that dreary cubicle". Shopping at Apple store feels like a luxury escape: I go frequently even for accessories that are cheaper on Amazon. Shopping at a Microsoft store will unfortunately have some of the same appeal as shopping for ink cartridges at Staples.
  - jpxxx 14y ago

3amOpsGuy 14y ago

I've been evaluating Win8 on behalf of an old client I still sometimes help out. It's nowhere near as bad as the press has been making out. It's certainly different but I can point out a larger volume of improvements than the measly 3 obvious regressions.

windsurfer 14y ago
Compare Windows 8 to OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows 7. Where would you say it ranks?
- Empro 14y ago
  Better than all of them.
  - gabemart 14y ago
    I find it hard to imagine someone in the hacker news crowd rating 8 over 7 on developer hardware. From my limited experience, the only major improvement I noticed was the improved task manager (which is really nifty). What other substantial improvements over 7 do you think Win8 provides?
    - isaacwaller 14y ago
      (I am not the original poster) * improved file copy dialog, including pausing * much faster boot * improved task manager (as you said) * better multi-monitor support (I have 2 monitors) It's not much but was worth the $30 upgrade. I don't mind the new start screen but I understand that is subjective.
      - MattDL 14y ago
        Isn't the faster booting thing just exactly the same as only using hibernate on Windows 7? Granted I haven't looked into it fully but I doubt the actual cold boot speeds vary wildly between the two.

randomfool 14y ago

Lots of theories, but it's only a month 'till MSFT Q4 results on Jan 24. Will be interesting what the numbers look like and how Microsoft explains them.

elliatab 14y ago

I think a turning point will be a combination of great Windows 8 apps and nice hardware. Concerning the hardware I am surprised to see very attractive stuffs here in Japan. The Fujitsu Arrows tab here is an example: http://www.fmworld.net/arrows/tab_wifi/qh/ http://www.fmworld.net/arrows/tab_wifi/qh/ It is featuring an Atom CPU so it's running the full Windows 8 (not the RT version) so it means you can really use whatever Windows software you've been using before on this machine. I believe the idea of having a single device replacing the desktop and the tablet is still attractive to many users. It will take some time for PC-makers to propose compelling offers but 2013 may be that time

zaidf 14y ago

It used to be that a new version of the Windows operating system was enough to get people excited about buying a new computer, giving sales a nice pop. Vague statements like above make me wish papers like NYT published detailed sources. My entire family has been on Windows for around 15 years and not once do I remember getting excited about the upgrade...and yet, we've done the upgrade. My family could be atypical but that is why I wish I had the source behind the article lead.

brisance 14y ago
Windows 95 which is 17 years ago. I remember people camping out for it.
- lesterbuck 14y ago
  I remember "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones licensed by Microsoft as the center of their advertising campaign. That is really a catchy riff and it worked very well to generate buzz about the launch. (Windows 95 introduced the Start button.) The common television ads for Windows 8 seemed built around synchronized opening and closing of tablets/laptops. My, how the mighty have fallen.

jpxxx 14y ago

I think folks are too quick to point to the iPad (& misc. tablets) as the cause of Win8's apparent downfall. PC vendors bungled this one on their own. It's a shitty economy and Microsoft & Friends are offering tired form factors, severe usability regressions, bad word of mouth, a bifurcation of Windows into two conceptually incompatible product lines, a meaningless brand, useless marketing, and poor developer incentives to migrate to the App Store model. Then consider how 'Microsoft Surface' is muddying every message with mixed reviews, poor availability, atrocious marketing, OEM alienation, and incoherent product segmentation. Windows 8 was a flop on its own terms, and Microsoft doesn't have the luxury of working in a vacuum anymore.

mgkimsal 14y ago
Do you mean "Surface" the touch table, or "Surface Windows RT", or "Surface Pro"?
- xorgar831 14y ago
  Along those lines, what compelling innovations are there? I've even used a Surface before, and still have no idea what I should get excited about.
- jpxxx 14y ago
  Whichever one comes with the touch cover... er, I mean the type cover. I mean the colorful one that is a keyboard but isn't a keyboard but I can type on it fast but just not as fast as a real keyboard but it's a real keyboard which makes this a laptop but it's not. It comes included, right?
- CamperBob2 14y ago
  Exactly.
- threepointone 14y ago
  Yes.
dmethvin 14y ago
You've left out things like bundled crapware, impossible-to-remove stickers that advertise Intel on the palm rest, horrible tech support, the need for antivirus, the sleazy way the software autorenews at much higher rates, and retail stores that bully you into protection plans that are a bad value. I'm puzzled how PC vendors can be so oblivious to the reasons why people are unimpressed by their products. Most of them just ooze mediocrity. Microsoft is powerless to fix the problem because the OEM owns the customer and Windows is just a component.

smegel 14y ago

I would have already upgraded to Win8 if it had a real desktop with a real start menu for my dual 27-inchers instead of a friggin touch interface designed for a tablet. Seriously, i don't know what they were smoking when they came up with that one. I still get moderately excited by new Windows stuff, after all the PC is not dead yet and i still enjoy building up a dream rig from scratch, even though i probably spend more time on my various Android devices.

chimeracoder 14y ago
> I would have already upgraded to Win8 if it had a real desktop with a real start menu for my dual 27-inchers instead of a friggin touch interface designed for a tablet. Walking into Best Buy today, I noticed that almost all the computers had touchscreens. Even the few that also had keyboards in front of them lacked mice. They're clearly betting on the hypothesis that computers in 2/5/10 years won't have mice, those having been replaced altogether by all-in-one monitors. In other words, I don't think the intent is to get Windows 8 installed on existing hardware. I think the intent is to get Windows 8[1] to dominate (and perhaps even drive) new sales. [1] Or, more likely, the successor to Windows 8 - Microsoft customers have always had a pattern of 'skip one, upgrade one', and even without the redesign, Windows 8 falls on one of the 'off' cycles as it is.
- smegel 14y ago
  Are you saying there were desktop PCs without keyboards? How does that even work?
  - chimeracoder 14y ago
    You'd be surprised how little most non-geeks use the keyboard for much of what they do. Heck, even geeks use tablets for a lot of daily work. In any case, I think this was just for display purposes. The touchscreen is intended more to replace the mouse than to replace the keyboard - at least for now.
- visualcsharp 14y ago

zmmmmm 14y ago

I really wonder about this: > Only 15 percent of Acer’s current Windows 8 products in North America have touch screens Microsoft made an OS that tries to shove a touch based interface down user's throats. They've gone all in and really committed 100% to it, which is admirable in it's own way: they know a large section of their users will hate this, but they also know their long term survival depends on getting a touch paradigm into their products, so this release is "taking one for the team", and it's not too surprising that sales are poor. But given all of this, why oh why, are ANY products shipping without touch interfaces? This part I don't understand and, I think, points to a major failure on Microsoft's part.

lessnonymous 14y ago
When I bought my new laptop, the store was 95% Window 8. And ZERO had a touch screen. I don't get why laptops don't come with a touch screen by default these days.
- visualcsharp 14y ago
  Probably because most people prefer /not/ to touch their screens, making the screens greasy and cloudy and making their shoulders hurt. Undoubtedly, touch screens increase cost, increase weight and decrease battery life, as well. In other words, there's /very little market demand/.
- nwh 14y ago
  Hold your arm straight out in front of you. Slowly count to 20. Now you know why.
  - dman 14y ago
    Its winter remove your glove and try to use your touch screen phone. Now do it for 20 more seconds.
    - nwh 14y ago
      I can't relate to that one at all actually, I don't think I've ever been so cold that gloves have impeded my touchscreen use.

buzzkillr2 14y ago

I have bought two windows 8 laptops in the past month and have returned both of them. Windows 8 works nicely, is quick and once you get over the hump of figuring out the unintuitive UI is mostly nice to use. The hardware simply was not up to the task of everyday use as a student. Trackpad, screen quality, keyboard, and battery life were the deal breakers for me.

cagey 14y ago
I returned my first (Toshiba) Win8 laptop less than 1 month ago after (a) the (Synaptics Multi-touch) trackpad stopped working entirely (after Win Update pushed Synaptics 16.2.10.3, the version Toshiba authorizes), and (b) even after recovering and switching to 16.2.21 (the newest release from Synaptics' website), it worked very unreliably and the simplest feature (which I require), single-finger scrolling, would not work at all.

petercooper 14y ago

If only Microsoft would make it easy to buy! I installed VMware Fusion yesterday and decided I'd like to have Windows 8 for it. So I looked for a download to buy and Microsoft has one.. an "upgrade" that costs about $40. Except I need something that's from scratch. Long story short, I either have to pay $700 for an MSDN membership or buy and wait for an "OEM" version to come from my favorite PC parts vendor. Let me buy an ISO and a license key fer chrissakes! I am wondering if it's viable to download a pirated ISO and then buy a license key only somehow, but if not, I'll have to buy a disc and rip it on another machine after the holidays.

af3 14y ago
not a direct way, but try this [1]. [1] http://slickdeals.net/f/5275360-UPDATE-10-21-EIGHT-LICENSE-KEYS-Windows-8-Professional-Windows-Server-2012-VS-2012-Ultimate-more-FREE-with-42-32-student-membership-to-ACM-IEEE http://slickdeals.net/f/5275360-UPDATE-10-21-EIGHT-LICENSE-K...?

clarky07 14y ago

Just because people aren't shopping in the Windows/Microsoft store doesn't mean nobody is buying Windows 8. 40 million sales in a month is nothing to sneeze at. I haven't tried the tablet version yet, but I have it dual booting on my iMac and it runs just fine. Also, FWIW, I just got a Windows 8 phone (HTC 8x) and have been porting a few of my iPhone apps just as a test of the market. I switched from my iPhone 5 for a week just to test it out and I really liked it. There are still a few apps missing, but for the most part everything I wanted was there. Overall I think I like Windows 8 better than Android though it's close. I'm sticking with my iPhone as I like it just a bit better than both, but they are all pretty close, (and so freaking awesome compared to just a few years ago). To someone who doesn't already have a lock in to one of the platforms I think Windows 8 could be a good competitor.