Windows 8 sales dissapointing

[PGHammer]

Best buy is also the company that told my wife her laptop was completely dead and there was nothing they could do to fix it (this is after charging her to take a look at it), when the only problem with it was the monitor cable had come loose.

Further, isn't Best Buy in major hot water, largely due to declining sales?

Reactions of Beast Buy sales persons (almost a misnomer considering how knowledgeable they are compared to the average Neowinian) are hardly a suitable measuring stick.

[Nomad_]

their sales can't be too bad, i just paid $15 for it this morning, and already back on windows 7. So they got $15 for nothing, ha.

Maybe it'll improve over time, i don't know. Was slower on my desktop than 7 was, and the hideous visuals made it even worse. Tried to force myself to like it, but i'm not as good at that as others.

and before others say it, yes im afraid of change.... when the change isn't for the better.

I saved myself $40.00 by downloading the RTM build (90-Day Trial). I really tried to like Windows 8, but after a few weeks of use I find that I hate everything about It.

[Joni_78]

I bought the 14 ? Pro version. In many ways Windows 8 is a step back on desktops (start screen etc.) but I really like some under the hood enchancements it has over Windows 7 and because it was only 14 ? I decided to upgrade.

News about bad sales are not a suprise.

It's funny how there is always a group of people who think everything new is the best thing ever, if Windows 9 would have the start button instead of start screen, the same people who now love start screen would say start button is better than start screen was :/

[The Evil Overlord]

People are comfortable with what they are comfortable with, upset that and lose customers at your own risk.

[Albert]

nawww.

from the way the neowinian fanboys were religiously hammering naysayers and going all stigmatic over the features of win egg in the months leading to its launch.

i was almost a believer. /s

almost. /s

lmao.

[Elliott]

I went and used one of the TouchSmarts with Windows 8 at Best Buy just to see what it was like with a touch interface (the preferred input method for Windows 8). Because I had been following its development and watched the keynotes, I could navigate it fairly well (though some gestures I thought I had remembered were, oddly, not working). However, my girlfriend couldn't even figure out how to exit the app that was currently open. Without the intro process to tell her how it works, it was completely unusable. I'm sorry, but I don't see how one could consider that anything but a poorly designed user experience.

[Rippleman]

BestBuy must be run drastically different in the States, here its a well liked good store with lower prices then anyone else. They are clean, always stocked, and enjoyable. Sales people are just mostly young adults 18-25. Of course some sales people give bad advice, some also give good advice. Overall I like BestBuy here.

[Gaffney]

I went and used one of the TouchSmart's with Windows 8 at Best Buy just to see what it was like with a touch interface (the preferred input method for Windows 8). Because I had been following its development and watched the keynotes, I could navigate it fairly well (though some gestures I thought I had remembered were, oddly, not working). However, my girlfriend couldn't even figure out how to exit the app that was currently open. Without the intro process to tell her how it works, it was completely unusable. I'm sorry, but I don't see how one could consider that anything but a poorly designed user experience.

Top left or bottom left or swipe from left to switch to next app.

Windows 8 uses gestures and not buttons, it's something new to learn.

[Hum]

Sales only reflect the end users disappointment in Microsoft. :laugh:

[jakem1]

I went and used one of the TouchSmart's with Windows 8 at Best Buy just to see what it was like with a touch interface (the preferred input method for Windows 8). Because I had been following its development and watched the keynotes, I could navigate it fairly well (though some gestures I thought I had remembered were, oddly, not working). However, my girlfriend couldn't even figure out how to exit the app that was currently open. Without the intro process to tell her how it works, it was completely unusable. I'm sorry, but I don't see how one could consider that anything but a poorly designed user experience.

It's a lot more intuitive than anything on the iPad. Double tapping on the home button to start closing apps is not obvious and most users don't even know the ridiculous four finger gestures exist. By comparison, every Windows 8 user is told to swipe in from the edges when they first set their PC up and the close gesture seems very sensible to me. You even get an animation to show you what is happening with the option to back out so you can't accidentally close apps. All very sensible and intuitive.

[Active.]

my girlfriend couldn't even figure out how to exit the app that was currently open.

Doesn't it work exactly the same way as it does on the iPad, i.e. press the home/windows button to get back to the launcher?

[Clirion]

Not everyone was born in this generation dude. You can't expect a 70 year old lady or man to understand something as technologically challenging as Windows 8.

My mother and my father in-law both had be load it.

My Mother is 73 and Father in-law is 72. My father is looking at it on my mothers system, he is leaning to pulling the trigger on it, he is 76.

[Noir Angel]

There doesn't exactly seem to be a booming interest in the UK, despite a quite intensive advertising campaign. People aren't queuing in computer stores to get their hands on it, and most members of the public that I come across seem apathetic at best.

[~Johnny]

There doesn't exactly seem to be a booming interest in the UK, despite a quite intensive advertising campaign. People aren't queuing in computer stores to get their hands on it, and most members of the public that I come across seem apathetic at best.

When has the general public ever been like that for an OS. Most people only care about it when they upgrade their PC's.

Microsoft's biggest challenge is to get people too see Windows 8 & Windows RT tablets as competition to the iPad and other tablets at the moment. I see many people foregoing getting a new laptop to just get a simpler tablet, and they don't realise that Windows RT is also an option. They just think it's Windows...

[Noir Angel]

I recall quite a few people being interested in the launch of Windows 7. I don't know if that's because they hated Vista but Microsoft have been advertising 8 pretty damn hard over here.

[jakem1]

Doesn't it work exactly the same way as it does on the iPad, i.e. press the home/windows button to get back to the launcher?

Why would it do that? The Windows button on a tablet works exactly the same way as it does on a keyboard (and has done since 1995). It toggles the Start screen on and off. It makes no sense for a launcher to be a closer.

[Colin McGregor]

Not everyone was born in this generation dude. You can't expect a 70 year old lady or man to understand something as technologically challenging as Windows 8.

my grandma is 76 and I put windows 8 on her pc cause she liked the colors in the start screen. Now she uses it daily. Granted she only skypes grandkids and does online banking with the occasional facebook but she can still use start screen with ease for music and for some reason she uses the metro IE to do her browsing stuff. I don't think shes ever on the old style desktop.

[Subhadip]

This should not be a surprise. Most of the Windows 8 touchscreen devices showed off months leading up to the release are not coming before December. Not a single one of them was even on sale for release day. It was just Surface and Vivo Tab RT, both RT machines. The first batch of Windows 8 machines, Ativ Smart PC, Yoga 13 shipped in November. A couple of Asus Vivo Books after, Acer S7, but not much more. The rest is still missing. They had years to prepare for this launch and most OEMs have been showing off these products for months. There's no excuse - the line-up of the brand new products should have been ready for display on October 26th. Instead all they could see was Surface, which is clearly not for everyone. If there was no Surface there would be zilch, nothing.

[dr_crabman]

Maybe you're just way more intelligent than most others. ;) "and stuff".

Or he tried using it for longer than a few hours. I can't take anyone seriously that writes stuff like "installed this morning, already back to W7". Also, Thurott's comments have gotten equally questionable over the last few years.

[Active.]

Why would it do that? The Windows button on a tablet works exactly the same way as it does on a keyboard (and has done since 1995). It toggles the Start screen on and off. It makes no sense for a launcher to be a closer.

I meant 'closed' as in 'you don't see it anymore'/it eventually gets suspended. Under normal circumstances, you're not really supposed to explicitly terminate apps in either iOS or Windows RT.

[jakem1]

I meant 'closed' as in 'you don't see it anymore'/it eventually gets suspended. Under normal circumstances, you're not really supposed to explicitly terminate apps in either iOS or Windows RT.

Yep, you can leave apps in the background and they will eventually close if not used.

[Detection]

Only joking Mr Matrix :p

[Dot Matrix]

Yep, you can leave apps in the background and they will eventually close if not used.

And will be shut down when RAM is needed or when the PC is shut down.

[PGHammer]

This should not be a surprise. Most of the Windows 8 touchscreen devices showed off months leading up to the release are not coming before December. Not a single one of them was even on sale for release day. It was just Surface and Vivo Tab RT, both RT machines. The first batch of Windows 8 machines, Ativ Smart PC, Yoga 13 shipped in November. A couple of Asus Vivo Books after, Acer S7, but not much more. The rest is still missing. They had years to prepare for this launch and most OEMs have been showing off these products for months. There's no excuse - the line-up of the brand new products should have been ready for display on October 26th. Instead all they could see was Surface, which is clearly not for everyone. If there was no Surface there would be zilch, nothing.

Further, by and large, Windows is typically bought with a new PC - upgrades of existing PCs have always been over and above that. (This goes back to Windows 3.x.) The very reason overall Windows sales are *disappointing* is because the sales of new PCs themselves are FAR below what was the case with Windows 7, or even Windows Vista, due to - naturally - a sour economy globally. (Said sour economy even affects Best Buy; one reason that Windows 8 is NOT being pushed that hard COULD well be that warehouse full of existing PCs running Windows 7 that need to be sold to make room FOR Windows 8 PCs.) When was the last Windows to launch during a bad economy? (Simple - there hasn't been one.)

[Active.]

The very reason overall Windows sales are *disappointing* is [...] due to - naturally - a sour economy globally.

Wouldn't Microsoft have been well aware of the economic conditions and has surely taken them into account when making their projections? Sales are after all supposedly well below Microsoft's own projections.