Windows and even MacOS is a factor IMO. When you have a device with them, you have to play system administrator. You need answers to virus scanners, backups,

Windows and even MacOS is a factor IMO. When you have a device with them, you have to play system administrator. You need answers to virus scanners, backups, where your photos are, where you get software from, how you find software you installed, the never ending and frequent updates to everything and the list goes on. With iOS and Android, the average person doesn't have to care about any of that. It is right there or in the cloud. A web browser is sufficient to do a lot of "work": banking, documents, communication, social etc. For advanced uses there is an app. Your photos are right there when you take them with the device. The amount of babysitting and micromanaging is trivial compared to Windows/MacOS. Note that to get iOS or Android, you need to buy a tablet or phone instead of a PC. The problem with Windows 8 is that it is still Windows. It doesn't go anywhere near far enough in the lack of babysitting/micromanaging that characterise Android/iOS and if you get the version that allegedly does (RT) you end up with a tablet anyway. And it broke what people who wanted desktop Windows expected by being different enough from Windows 7 and predecessors appearing gratuitous. Nobody has evolved successfully - both iOS and Android started from scratch. Microsoft and Ubuntu are trying to evolve from desktop, but without much traction so far. (Of course there could be other reasons.)