back to article Microsoft can't even shift Windows 8 slabs in the middle of a tablet frenzy

Microsoft can't tap into the fast-growing tablet market, according to new figures that reveal lacklustre sales of Surface RT and other Windows 8 slabs. Canalys figures for Q4 show a 12 per cent growth in the worldwide PC market, fuelled by a 75 per cent rise in tab shipments to 46.2 million units. Notebooks sales were flat (58 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why would anyone buy a Windows Restricted Tablet? oh yeah restricted apple.

  2. Robert E A Harvey

    Instant reaction

    Bwahahhahhhaha

    Snork!

    Burn, baby, burn. A year of commentators and journalists and tech writers telling them it would not fly, but they knew best.

    Bwa hahahha snerk ha ha

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Instant reaction

      Good news... your life is obviously so empty that I'm glad a story like this comes along to make it a bit more worthwhile.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Instant reaction

      Yep everyone said the UI was a confusing mess and now people are voting with their wallets by keeping them firmly in the pocket.

      1. ScarletVarlet
        Pint

        Re: Instant reaction

        Not so much keeping them in their pockets as pulling them out for Apple or Samsung.

        The only reason I can think of wanting a Windows tablet is to run my old programs, none of which are tablet oriented (ha!) so I'll need that keyboard and mouse (whoops, now it's not really a tablet anymore!)

        Many people bought a PC to do email, social, read, play, without any genuine need for Windows, just the brower or software which ran in it. Now apps abount for tablets along with all new games, etc. Why by Windows brand if you never really needed it and have nothing tying you to it now?

        Tough sledding for Microsoft, they do not understand their users after decades of telling them they knew what was good for them.

        Humble pie a la mode for Microsoft.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They were warned.

    I'm an MS guy, but I have never forgiven them for the Ribbon, so I sure as hell was never, never, never going to buy an operating system with the same problems in the UI.

    It was said a million times, "We hate stupid little icons." "We multitask." etc.

    Microsoft's response? Contempt.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: They were warned.

      Couldnt agree more!

      MS's UI design teams lost the plot long ago and have been getting it wrong ever since. Infact its almost like they've had a chip on their shoulder about usability since MS Bob. The list of errors is long, but Ribbon is top of the list, followed by Metro on the desktop / server OS, black and white visual studio.

      1. Danny 14
        Pint

        Re: They were warned.

        To be fair, windows 8 works well on a tablet. It is unbearable on a desktop loaded with apps and complete hell on earth with a trackpad. The main problem with RT (or surface when it arrives) is sheer cost. A tablet is a tool for a job (in my eyes) and there are far cheaper alternatives.

        1. Chris Parsons

          Re: They were warned.

          Unbearable? Maybe I have my fortitude than you.

      2. Tom 13

        Re: MS's UI design teams

        I'm not sure exactly who (I suspect the executives, not the drones), but somebody at MS is spending too much time reading the Apple PR and not reading enough of their customer responses.

  4. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Coat

    Contempt!

    Our chief weapon is contempt!

    Contempt, and an inability to listen to the customer!

    Er, our two chief weapons are contempt, an inability to listen to the customer, and knowing best!

    Er, our three chief weapons are contempt, an inability to listen to the customer, knowing best, and refusing to sell the OS the customer wants!

    MS hurries out and comes in again.

    Among our chief weapons are...

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Contempt!

      That sounds more like Apple than MS. ASking customers what they want and then making it generally leads to a horrible product. Companies SHOULD take bold moves in designing their answer to a problem... but they need to be right.

      1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

        Re: Contempt!

        @JDX - by all means offer new products; but to bet the company on it? A little tick box on the web page when you buy a new computer offering the choice of what the user is used to or something new will tell them whether people want it or not... restricting new computers to only this choice that it seems few want is not the way to make friends and influence people.

        Bold moves, yes; only bold moves, no. As you said - it has to be *right*.

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: Contempt!

          Jobs rebuilt Apple based deciding what people should have, listening to nobody even other Apple people.

          But of course, he also pretty much ran it into the ground by deciding what people wanted.

          I'd rather MS made bold moves and got it wrong.. we can always leave MS products... than that everyone sat there doing nothing.

          1. Daniel B.

            Re: Contempt! @JDX and Jobs

            Jobs rebuilt Apple deciding for users, but he actually knew that what he was pushing would be accepted. And he had his Reality Distortion Field to pull it off.

            MS is copying Apple yet again, but this time they're pushing something that they KNOW nobody wants, their market studies point elsewhere but still they push it trying to pull a Jobs sans RDF. This is what happens.

            At this point, defending MS is as bad as Eadon's MS trashing, if not worse.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Contempt!

        Agreed, it's the Ford Edsel of the Tablet world...

        1. asdf
          Coffee/keyboard

          Re: Contempt!

          coffee on keyboard, nailed that one lol.

    2. John G Imrie

      Re: Contempt!

      If you do not admit your love for Windows 8 we will bring out ....

      .

      .

      .

      .

      .

      .

      .

      Microsoft Clippy.

      [du Du DURRRRR!!!]

    3. TheOtherHobbes

      Re: Contempt!

      We used to have a Comfy Chair, but Ballmer broke it.

      Sorry.

  5. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Windows

    Since MS didn't get to tablets first people didn't expect or want tablets to be Windows compatible. Unfortunately MS butchered their desktop OS so they could sell expensive tablets aimed at a non-existent market just because they carry the Windows name, but the funny thing is that Windows RT tablets aren't Windows compatible either so aren't worth the extra.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      I think I'd prefer WinRT tablets if the desktop was not present at all... Metro is a perfectly good touch UI but desktop is just ugly on a 10" screen with no keyboard.

    2. Alexander Hanff 1
      Stop

      Actually...

      Actually MS -did- get to tablets first, just a long time before the public wanted them...

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Actually...

        They just crowbarred Windows into other formats. A laptop running XP without a keyboard and with a resistive touchscreen does not make what people consider today to be a tablet. Same goes for mobile phones.

      2. Lars Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Actually...

        Yes, I remember i pic with this well dressed woman from HP (not Meg) who tried to hide the thing.

    3. ScottME
      Devil

      MS can't win

      MS did actually make quite a number of early attempts at tablets - stylus based, keyboardless PCs & the like. They were of course too heavy, too restricted in what they could do, and the keyboard/mouse oriented user interface didn't really work too well without either.

      Now in the Surface they have made a device that's light and portable, has a decent touch-screen user interface, and people won't buy it because it's largely incompatible with the non-tablet Microsoft systems that they have become habituated to.

      They are essentially victims of their own earlier successes, having themselves sown and nurtured the seeds of their eventual destruction. I don't say any of this out of sympathy - I have none for them, and I hope the company continues to decline.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: MS can't win

        indeed, there were loads of CE devices too. Loads of EPOS systems ran on CE "tablets".

  6. Semaj
    Boffin

    Third it and throw in the cover-keyboard (should come with it on all models) and then maybe.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows 8 problems are many

    But the fact it dumbs your PC down from a all singing all dancing productivity tool into a simple media consumption device is the biggest.

    Windows Phone problems are many, but the biggest problem is lack of apps, and the fact it's Microsoft.

    Windows Surface problems are many, but to try and single one out, "It's not Apple or Android", and has no apps.

  8. Tom 35

    neither was its lack of tab devices.

    You mean the lack of non-Windows tabs? Dell have both RT and Pro tabs.

    1. Tom 35

      Re: neither was its lack of tab devices.

      To reply to my own message...

      Just received some Dell junk mail. They have the Latitude 10 Tablet (Windows 8 Pro) on sale for $699 (claim $323 off). Guess no one wanted to pay a grand for a netbook with a touch screen.

  9. hitmouse

    Same strategy?

    The analyst is clueless if he thinks that access to the app store is a big issue for Surface Pro, which DOESN'T NEED special apps.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Same strategy?

      Doesn't need special apps?

      So all those mouse and keyboard designed apps don't need any changes to make them usable let alone pleasant on a touch UI?

      You're living in a dream world :-)

  10. Stephen Channell
    Windows

    If you can't own the market..

    ..then buy it! a 60% cut for a windows rt tablet looks like a good price point to compete with Android.. worked for HP

  11. Smart_Teacher_Girl
    FAIL

    I wonder why Microsoft can't sell an awful, poorly designed, poorly thought out OS like Windows 8. You think people would be HAPPY to have to sit and figure out the crude 1980s style "tile" interface. Study how to use a "new" OS that they have already learned... and have been working with every day for 10 years. Who would have thought that people wouldn't like all that "new" fun at work.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Hmm, a tile-based interface. That doesn't remind me of Android and iOS at all. Oh, it does.

  12. Robert Ramsay

    "Customers played a wait-and-see game"

    I think he meant "customers played a couldn't-give-a-shit game"

    1. David Hicks
      Stop

      Re: "Customers played a wait-and-see game"

      'xactly what I thought when I read that.

      Customers (well potential customers) either didn't know or didn't care. The phrasing in the article implies a hoard of people just waiting to see if MS did good or released cheap enough. I can't imagine this was the case at all.

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: "Customers played a wait-and-see game"

        I read it that the general public (the customers) have learnt from HP's WebOS and so are waiting for MS to do an HP and slash prices to $100 - at which point MS won't be able to cope with demand because it will have axed the development team etc etc...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Apple wannabe.....

    .........at Apple prices.

    Who'd have thunk?

    Wondering, is there no executive board overseer for their disastrous product and pricing strategy. Must be costing them dearly already without any accountability.

    Something definitely stinks in MS world.

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Re: Apple wannabe.....

      >Who'd have thunk?

      Aye. After all it was such a thundering success for HP & RIM, wasn't it?

  14. Zola
    Go

    Yay! Firesale!

    But strangely, I still wouldn't be interested.

    Windows (certainly for the consumer) has simply jumped the shark.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Give then to America

    It's been proven time and time again, Microsoft can sell any old tat over there, and trailerpark hicks will queue up at Walmart to get their hands on it.

    Bundle it with a Britney Spears CD or something... Worked for Xbox.... Infact they even managed to get the idiots to pay a monthly subscription for the privilege of using it (when it worked).

    1. asdf

      Re: Give then to America

      >It's been proven time and time again, Microsoft can sell any old tat over there, and trailerpark hicks will queue up at Walmart to get their hands on it.

      That is also why Microsoft bribed Nokia because they thought any crooked teeth cider drinking limey would pretend to be all posh on high street buying their fancy Nokia without paying attention to what they are buying. Would have worked too had they gotten the phones out a year earlier.

  16. Steve I

    Telling the customer what they really want...

    ...only works if you're right.

    Wasn't it Heny Ford who said "If I'd asked the customer what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse."

    1. kiwi8mail
      Coat

      Re: Telling the customer what they really want...

      I'd hate to be accused of invoking Godwin's law or anything... but was this the same Henry Ford who sympathized with Hitler, and who was a recipant of Nazi Germany's Grand Cross of the German Eagle?

      But apart from that, no, I can't abide Windows 8 myself...

      1. fandom

        Re: Telling the customer what they really want...

        Indeed, the same Henry Ford that taught Porsche how to build cars. What that has to do with anything, I don't know.

        1. Glenn Amspaugh
          Unhappy

          Re: Telling the customer what they really want...

          The same Henry Ford who raised worker wages and instituted car loans so his workers could buy his vehicles. Later, when workers tried to organize, he had machine gun emplacements at his plants and home and several workers were shot and killed by local police and Ford security when a march occurred.

      2. Rob 21

        Re: Telling the customer what they really want...

        Henry Ford didn't like Jews. So? Neither does my kebab shop.

        1. asdf
          Trollface

          Re: Telling the customer what they really want...

          I saw what you did there. Don't you know criticizing Israel's policies is still antisemitism? At least that is what we are told here in Israel's bottom bitch land the US.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Halve the price?!

    I say, quarter the price and then... maybe, JUST maybe.

    The Analist

  18. PaulNib68

    More Denial

    ""Windows 8 launched late in the year and was a massive departure from the existing operating systems, so consumers played a wait-and-see game," said Tim Coulling, senior analyst at Canalys"

    Why is there so much refusal to admit the obvious on the part of so many "analysts" and tech columns? Windows8 is hated, it's that simple. A couple months back we were seeing articles lamenting MS's lackluster PC sales and efforts by medial shills to pass off the weakness as due to Tablets and mobile eating away at consumer preferences and spending choices. Now we are seeing mobile devices with WIN8 doing poorly as well, and whaddaya know, more apologetics that ignore the obvious.

    I have read numerous comment sections on almost any coverage of WIN8, and one thing is almost always glaringly clear, the majority of opinion is negative. In many cases, severely so. The most commonly cited issues being the horrible new UI and "mystery" navigation along with a complete lack of concern for user preferences. I bought a Win8 laptop, HUGE mistake, and although I am also looking for a new PC, will not do so until I can find one with WIn7.

    It is very simpe. WIndows 8 is a failure. Thus, time for MS to learn from the mistake and move on.

    1. Asok Asus
      Holmes

      Re: More Denial

      And it's also obvious that almost all of the positive posts concerning Windows 8/Windows RT are coming from paid MicroTrolls.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Still it can only go downhill from here.

    Now they have locked 45m or so users into Xbox Live, they can pull the used game rug from under them for next-gen.. I saw they were getting idiotic gamers to sign up for slightly discounted 12 month subscriptions recently...... (we all know why, 12 months of non-defection to PS3).

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/Xbox/9855438/Microsofts-Xbox-720-to-block-second-hand-gaming.html

    1. asdf

      Re: Still it can only go downhill from here.

      Wow and you think Sony (by far the biggest inventors and pushers of DRM) is any more supportive of the 2nd hand game market? They both suck and Nintendo sucks too they are just incompetent at it and put out games for 8 year olds.

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. asdf
      Trollface

      Re: Metro Now

      Well everything must be owned by a few people even in the digital world. Communal work is devil work. Humanity owning something useful is the first sign of the Apocalypse.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. hplasm
      Facepalm

      Re: Metro Now

      Down, Fido- you don't want RICHTO sniffing at yer bum...

  21. asdf
    Trollface

    ultimate way to revive the surface

    If Microsoft was serious about shifting surfaces in volume they would unlock the bootloader and support Android on the things.

  22. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    I'm very concerned

    Will Eadon EVER achieve a positive net vote?

    PS: I lied about the title.

  23. CyberCod
    Holmes

    It all makes complete sense

    If you consider how many MS employees HATE that loudmouth Ballmer, perhaps they're trying to deep-six the company temporarily so that he'll get replaced.

    The brand is powerful enough to bounce back, after he's gone.

    think about it.

    Once Ballmer is gone, I think MS will go through a renaissance-like period where they dominate again.

  24. kb
    FAIL

    The only reason the netbook is dead

    is that MSFT killed it. The whole point of the netbook was a small and CHEAP Internet, media, and basic office device, and when first released the OEMs could get WinPX Home for $15 a pop. Then MSFT went to $35 for 7 Starter, $50 for Win 7 Home, and they just cut all the chances for the OEMs to make a cent right out. When I bought my Win 7 AMD netbook it was $350 with Win 7 HP X64 and 4GB of RAM, by the time the last Win 8 netbooks rolled off the shelves the price had already reached $500 USD.

    I think in the coming months you'll see more and more OEMs go to Google's Android and ChromeOS as MSFT has decided they are a "premium" brand and expect the OEMs to only sell premium units. Ask the OEMs with warehouses full of ulrabooks how well that worked in a dead economy MSFT, of course your price for SurfaceRT just shows you still don't get it.

  25. Levente Szileszky
    FAIL

    The R(e)T(arded) Edition was DoA but even Pro is being butchered...

    ...for its launch price: $1000-1200?

    =O

    The classic case of "Are you f'n kidding me?"

    While R(e)T(arded) Edition was stilborn due to its R(e)T(arded) feature limitations, its laguhably high price tag only compounded the death certificate, this perpetually about-to-be-launched Surface Pro supposed to cure all the problems...

    ...except it comes at a price that made everyone thinking "just WTF ARE Ballmer et all SMOKING THERE?"

    Seriously, it's just sheer, utter incompetence, at its worst. Ballmer et al MUST GO, period.

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