New
#1
This is yet another manufacturer blaming W8 for poor sales. Why oh why did they put an OS which is obviously designed for touch screens onto a desktop/laptop system. If I go into my local PC superstore every laptop is displayed with W8 on it even though they would be better off with W7. The sales staff aren't really particularly helpful either as many of them simply don't understand where you go without a start menu.
Surely Dell and others would have been aware of this problem so whilst W8 may not have taken off as hoped they should also take some of the responsibility for failing to read the market correctly.
There's also the point that the market has hit maturity. Many folks that bought a desktop/laptop in the past for web browsing/emailing/social networking could easily have achieved that with a tablet if they had been available. In my case there is little (or no) point in upgrading the hardware simply to have the latest. A few milliseconds here and there isn't going to make any difference in the real world.
Where M$ have failed IMO is getting across the real world benefits of upgrading from W7 to W8. Just maybe there aren't any.