Yeah, you missed the point of the article. The point is that, relative to Windows 7, very little interest in W8 is being evinced. Nowhere is it claimed that you aren't interested, but that the population of people, for whom things like this are interesting, are not showing interest relative to their interest in previous iterations of Microsoft software.
As for actual interest, I'd bet the "no one gives a crap, which is unfortunate" line still stands. People cared about W7 because Vista had a bad rap, deserved or not. And as an OS X user, I'd say W7 is pretty darn good, which makes W8 seem.. well, I'm not sure actually why anyone on a PC needs W8. Tablet, sure. PC? Not so much.
Microsoft is making the right moves (the Nook buy could be genius) but they may be a victim of their own success here with W7. Like XP, people may not see much of a need to upgrade.
I think the Windows 7 interest was so high, because it was generally known to be good enough to be the first OS to replace Windows XP in however many (10?) years. After the Vista fiasco people were eager to upgrade.
Windows 7 is still pretty new, and people are still upgrading to 7 from XP. Microsoft doesn't need Win8 to sell in the bulk numbers that 7 does.
What people know about Windows 8 is that it works really well with a touch screen. Not so much with just a keyboard and mouse. Going forward, I think we'll be seeing more manufacturers put touch screens on more of their laptops, and make more interesting designs (like the Lenovo Yoga thing) that take advantage of touchscreen technology.
I haven't installed Win8 on any of my machines. I don't have a touchscreen laptop or monitor. If I did, there's no question I would have Win8. But I don't. So I'm sticking with 7 until some excellent Win8 devices come out in a year or so.
Win8 will not have the immediate mass appeal that Win7 did. However, when people go to upgrade their laptop next time, they will consider a touch screen Win8 laptop, or tablet on intel architecture. Right now, the manufacturers are developing these products, they're not even available yet.
Microsoft is making a clear statement that touch screen is the future. But they're not stupid enough to realize that a keyboard and mouse is always necessary in some cases. So they combined the best of both worlds with Win8 instead. A great touch screen interface, and a stable, rock solid OS with Windows 7 built in, that functions traditionally with a keyboard and mouse.
The actual hardware is not fully here yet, but when manufacturers start getting caught up, I think we'll see a more true indication of how this will impact the market and affect iPad sales.
It's definetely a risk, but it is innovation, which to me, is better than just re-inventing Windows 7 again.