Windows 8 initial upgrades are abysmal–only slightly above Mountain Lion
If Windows 8 upgrades sales are in the comparative range of Mac Lion upgrades then Microsoft has a problem. Put simply, the number of PCs is a large multiple of the number of Macs. So when Ballmer tells attendees at Build that there have been 4 million copies of Windows 8 sold in the three days since launch you need to understand that it’s not a good figure. By comparison, Apple reported that in the 4 days following availability of Mountain Lion it sold 3m upgrades. Ok so it’s an extra day and there are extra sales so presuming that the next day of sales was in line with initial sales you’re still at around 5m sales in 4 days relative to Apples 3m sales in 4 days. They shouldn’t be on the same page based on the number of PC users. Also, Microsoft spent a lot on marketing. The one place the marketing falls pathetically short is in saying that you can download it for $40 right now. I don’t see that on any of their ads and for me, that’s a huge selling point.
I also want to be clear that Mountain Lion is $20 relative to Windows 8’s $40 online/$70 in store but still, the number of computers capable of receiving the respective upgrades are not on the same page so sales shouldn’t be either.
Bottom line is that they have work to do. I’d expect sales to be strong as more people use and see the OS in action and the ads for PCs that show the OS in action are generally great. If this were a sprint, I’d say they lost. They need to run this like a marathon and keep demand high through the holidays.
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Windows 8 is going to take off. Like you said the more people use it the more the word will spread. There are 4 laptops in my mom’s house and she had no idea about Windows 8 until I told her a couple days ago.
I think the huge thing is the sale of new devices. The combination of keyboard & touch will be awesome. Every person i’ve seen in retail stores (Staples, Best Buy, Walmart) trying the touch screen laptops is amazed at it.
If I’m not mistaken, upgrades constitute around 14% of Windows sales. The rest are split between OEMs and enterprise licenses.
I purchased the upgrade to Windows 8 Pro on the release date, but just finally got around to upgrading yesterday. I really like it so far. Yes, it takes some getting used to, but I think it has some great features. Wanted to get the PC updated for when I get the new Windows Phone 8 in a couple weeks. So tired of waiting for the phone!
I had a short chance to play around with some Win8 machines at Best Buy during lunch. Everything I played with was laptop based. It’s certainly much easier to work with on a touch screen than without. I gotta say….I would want the X button and window minimize/maximize buttons back.
It might be cool with a real mouse, but trying to click-hold-drag from the top of the screen to the bottom with a trackpad just to close a program kinda sucked.
God point Ed. Win 8 works great with a mouse, but with a trackpad, that would be a different story. I wouldn’t recommend a laptop without a touch screen at this point.
Sorry. Good, not God.
Aside from the 3 million of us waiting for Win 8 and the $40 upgrade, who else knows about it. Retailers aren’t going to advertise that deal, selling upgrades for $79.95. And Microsoft probably made a deal to not push it beyond Internet advertising, to protect those partners.
So it’s going to take some word of mouth and people shopping for new PCs. Commercials should drive consumers to the Web and retail to learn more about Win 8. I’m not worried.
As usual, the marketing has been poor. A few ads about surface and W8 here and there but nothing that induces the kind of lust you get with apple adverts. And sadly they are the standard, people buying personal computing devices today are buying ipads because that is all that has been pitched to them. Windows 8 is not guaranteed to take off simply because no one knows about it. Similar to Windows Phone.