Windows 8 adoption rate reportedly worse than Vista

danbbrantley

New member
Nov 4, 2012
61
0
0
Visit site
I'd say the difference here is that Windows 8 is actually awesome. It's fast, more power efficient than Windows 7, and lets touch users as well as keyboard and mouse users get what they want. Vista was a power hugging bloated OS.
This should lead to more success down the road. My dad has been a diehard XP power user since it released and recently moved to Windows 8. He swore at it for about 3 hours and now can't stop telling me how great it is. He went ahead and put it on two more computers that had been running Vista in our house right away. None are touch enabled.

Corporate customers on Windows 7 won't likely change, but it makes more sense to upgrade from XP or Vista to Windows 8 than it does Windows 7.
 

jhoff80

New member
Apr 27, 2003
1,415
0
0
Visit site
XP was out for 6 years before Vista came out, and XP wasn't always completely stable, and had slowdown issues over time. People were waiting around for the next version, near the end.

7 has only been out for 3 years, and is rock-solid.

Besides that, these days we tend to be at a point of diminishing returns for hardware power for most users. There's less incentive to upgrade from a first-generation Core i5 (which was released around the time 7 did), for example, than there was back when people were upgrading from a Pentium 4 to a Core Duo.
 

Big Supes

New member
Sep 1, 2011
1,698
0
0
Visit site
I agree with jhoff80 in that Windows 7 is rock solid. So much so, people aren't in a hurry to switch to the latest thing. IMO, should have advertised the upgrade offer more.
 

tiziano27

Banned
Dec 8, 2012
192
0
0
Visit site
Windows 8 adoption measured as web statistics is nonsense. Now people use phones and tablets to browse the web, in the time of vista and 7 the pc was the only way to access internet.
 

cashcar1979

New member
Oct 18, 2012
105
0
0
Visit site
Biggest issue for win8 sales is an industry wide hardware shortage in touch screens for both laptops and AIOs. If not for this Touch sales would be 2x to 3x current sales for most OEMs.
 

fatclue_98

Retired Moderator
Apr 1, 2012
9,146
1
38
Visit site
From what I could read, it seems as though the figures reflect SALES of the new OS rather than upgrades from older systems. In case anybody noticed, Vista was released at the high point of the crazy financing/housing bubble and people were spending cash as if it were going to end. And it did. A more accurate story would be about retail licensing figures, that is the actual measure of adoption. Anyway, W8 is fantastic but I don't see much of a reason to leave 7. They finally got one right.
 

tekhna

New member
Mar 21, 2012
499
0
0
Visit site
Windows 8 serves no real purpose--the wrong answer to the question nobody asked, coupled with the fact that Windows 7 is excellent is a pretty huge double whammy.
Why can't they just give the option of totally disabling Metro in a desktop environment? It was there in the betas. People don't like change, especially when it doesn't actually improve the user experience on a desktop. Tablet and phone? Sure, Metro is awesome, but otherwise, I sort of resent Microsoft cramming this crap down our throat.
 

tekhna

New member
Mar 21, 2012
499
0
0
Visit site
XP was out for 6 years before Vista came out, and XP wasn't always completely stable, and had slowdown issues over time. People were waiting around for the next version, near the end.

7 has only been out for 3 years, and is rock-solid.

Besides that, these days we tend to be at a point of diminishing returns for hardware power for most users. There's less incentive to upgrade from a first-generation Core i5 (which was released around the time 7 did), for example, than there was back when people were upgrading from a Pentium 4 to a Core Duo.

I haven't upgraded my laptop since the Core 2 Duo generation. There's no reason to upgrade, my laptop runs Chrome, Word and Excel. I don't need it to do anything more than that.
 

cashcar1979

New member
Oct 18, 2012
105
0
0
Visit site
Plenty of reasons to upgrade dude...touch screens, better display resolution, faster procs and graphics, much improved battery life, ssd drives, etc. Need more reasons?
 

Laura Knotek

Retired Moderator
Mar 31, 2012
29,393
20
38
Visit site
Plenty of reasons to upgrade dude...touch screens, better display resolution, faster procs and graphics, much improved battery life, ssd drives, etc. Need more reasons?

It depends on a user's needs. If browsing and Office is all that one needs, there is no need to buy new hardware.
 

tekhna

New member
Mar 21, 2012
499
0
0
Visit site
Plenty of reasons to upgrade dude...touch screens, better display resolution, faster procs and graphics, much improved battery life, ssd drives, etc. Need more reasons?

Yes, I do need more reasons. None of those are applicable to my usage patterns. Would some of them be nice? Sure. Do any of them matter enough to plunk down cash? **** no. I'm totally satisfied with my mid-2009 Macbook in 2013. I've upgraded to 8 gigs of RAM, replaced the battery once, and use bootcamp frequently, no need for anything more.
 

cashcar1979

New member
Oct 18, 2012
105
0
0
Visit site
I'm playing devils advocate. You said there is no reason to upgrade. I am saying there are plenty of reasons - especially Touch. Win8 + Touch on a laptop or convertible is very compelling.
 

cashcar1979

New member
Oct 18, 2012
105
0
0
Visit site
Windows 8 serves no real purpose--the wrong answer to the question nobody asked, coupled with the fact that Windows 7 is excellent is a pretty huge double whammy.
Why can't they just give the option of totally disabling Metro in a desktop environment? It was there in the betas. People don't like change, especially when it doesn't actually improve the user experience on a desktop. Tablet and phone? Sure, Metro is awesome, but otherwise, I sort of resent Microsoft cramming this crap down our throat.

Serves no purpose? How about the purpose of creating an OS to cater to the changing landscape of input methods. People are increasingly demanding alternative methods to the standard mouse/keyboard - Touch, Voice, Motion, etc. MSFT has been trying to bring Touch around for years to larger devices and finally got there with Windows 8.

Also you can easily boot to the DT by using 3rd party apps like Start8. It even brings back the legacy Start button for those folks who fear change.
 

flyingsolid

New member
Nov 7, 2012
112
0
0
Visit site
I'd say the difference here is that Windows 8 is actually awesome. It's fast, more power efficient than Windows 7, and lets touch users as well as keyboard and mouse users get what they want. Vista was a power hugging bloated OS.
This should lead to more success down the road. My dad has been a diehard XP power user since it released and recently moved to Windows 8. He swore at it for about 3 hours and now can't stop telling me how great it is. He went ahead and put it on two more computers that had been running Vista in our house right away. None are touch enabled.

Corporate customers on Windows 7 won't likely change, but it makes more sense to upgrade from XP or Vista to Windows 8 than it does Windows 7.

@Bold: I have a similar story. I was mainly an XP user and at first glance Windows 8 seemed unnecessarily foreign but I like it now. Its not perfect but it is much better. Within a few days I bought two more licenses. One computer with 7 was upgraded and the other wasn't.
 

joeynox

New member
Sep 30, 2012
578
0
0
Visit site
People don't need windows 8. I got it because it was 40 bucks but windows 7 is perfect so why upgrade ? I barely ever go to the metro side of windows 8.
 

tekhna

New member
Mar 21, 2012
499
0
0
Visit site
Win8 is quite simple...my 75 year old Dad can use it

Cool. We can exchange anecdotes all day. I don't know a single person using Windows 8. There, another anecdote.
The fact is, no matter which polling company, analyst, or computer producer you ask (with the exception of Dell), they'll all tell you Windows 8 has flopped.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
322,736
Messages
2,242,598
Members
427,978
Latest member
Duouser3