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back to article So, Windows 8.1 to give PC sales a shot in arm? BZZZZT, wrong answer

Microsoft's Windows 8.1 update and the rise of tablet-cum-laptop PCs may boost sales for the software titan and its hardware-making pals - but it won't happen anytime soon. Or so predicts IT distribution channel beancounter Canalys in its global shipment forecast for 2013: the analysts estimates little more than 493 million …

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  1. Turtle

    A Shot In The Arm?

    "So, Windows 8.1 to give PC sales a shot in arm? BZZZZT, wrong answer."

    Far be it from me to disagree with the experts but I am not so sure that PC sales are capable of getting a shot in the arm at all, for any reason, under any circumstances.

    I think that a lot of people who might have once bought computers now find that all their "computing needs" are satisfied by a smart phone. There are huge numbers of people whose needs consist entirely of email, and Facebook (and/or whatever shitty "social apps" people use). That's lots and lots of people.

    And I wonder how many businesses and enterprises really need to upgrade to the latest generation of hardware. Not every business needs it users to run AutoCAD, after all - one has to think that certain businesses have found that a five-year-old desktop will run all the software that their employees need to run, I should think.

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    1. Nigel 11
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      Mature market

      For every technology, the market eventually becomes mature and saturated, and the result is that volume of sales decreases to the replacement level because New and Old are approximately equal if Old still works at all. Witness kitchen appliances. Automobiles. Audio systems.

      PCs have reached this point. Previously they became obsolete in three years, now they become worn out in 6-9 years, so a 2-3 fold shrinkage in volume is completely predictable (and tough for manufacturers). In contrast tablets haven't yet saturated their market, neither are they a mature technology. Most folks have worked out that PCs and tablets aren't competing products, any more than a car and a bicycle are competing products. PCs are for creating content. Tablets are for consuming content. Many of us have both.

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    2. Wade Burchette
      Reply Icon

      Re: A Shot In The Arm?

      " I am not so sure that PC sales are capable of getting a shot in the arm at all, for any reason, under any circumstances."

      There is still a huge demand for new computers, but they have to be running Windows 7. I helped a friend buy a new HP with Windows 7 on it. The sales person on the phone stated that due to high demand it will be two weeks before the computer can even ship. I guarantee you that if a store had a shelf full of Windows 7 computers they would sell out in days.

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  2. Furbian
    Meh

    Windows 7 just works for me...

    ... well that's it really. Gave Windows 8 a spin (3 months on a secondary machine), and Office 2013 too, didn't like either, yes I'm a retard according to Windows 8 fans, though they could tell me how it would help me write Rails, Javascript and PHP applications better, and no I'm not going to Linux for my main machine, or any form of Mac (though a lot of fellow developers I know do use it, but again not for me).

    So They can roll out Blue, Green, etc. ad infinitum, I just don't care Maybe next year, if it offers something new and useful.

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Win 8.1 - It's not a shot in the arm

    a shot in the foot maybe.

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    1. Nigel 11
      Reply Icon

      Re: Win 8.1 - It's not a shot in the arm

      I was thinking knee. Or maybe groin. Head, if they EOL Windows 7.

      "Can I buy one with Windows 7"

      "No".

      "Do you sell anything with Windows 7"?

      "No".

      "Oh" (looks disappointed, wanders off to look at the TVs or kitchen appliances).

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    2. Daniel B.
      Reply Icon
      Terminator

      Re: Win 8.1 - It's not a shot in the arm

      More like a shot in both feet and legs. Repeatedly, if you add up their EPIC FAIL strategy with the I Spy Xbox1.

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  4. Infernoz Bronze badge
    FAIL

    More liberated Windows 7 then!

    MS shot a hole in their balance sheet by insisting on a poor tablet like UI (a lot worse than early Android), on a desktop, so the statute (fake law) infringement sites will get much busier than if MS had genuinely swallowed humble pie and provided a proper classic (window 7) UI reversion option in 8.1. I tried a Windows 8.? UI in a shop this week, on several Laptops, and the navigation is just horrible and flakey with only a touch pad, and not much better on the few with a touch screen; the whole screen Applet 'feature' looks a complete backward step too. The side bar menu is an pig to make appear, then press an icon on it, because it often disappears while you are trying to get to one of its icons to press it, WTF!

    MS are going for broke, yes, bankruptcy; it'll just take them time to burn through all their (shareholders) cash.

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