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.

I wonder what would have happened (and even still could happen) if the major "name brand" PC manufacturers (Dell, Lenovo, Asus and all the rest) had dug their combined heels in and insisted that MS either retained 7 alongside 8, or configured 8 in a way that looked like, and behaved like, 7 but with 8 "under the hood"?

johngee said:

I wonder what would have happened (and even still could happen) if the major "name brand" PC manufacturers (Dell, Lenovo, Asus and all the rest) had dug their combined heels in and insisted that MS either retained 7 alongside 8, or configured 8 in a way that looked like, and behaved like, 7 but with 8 "under the hood"?

My guess is that M$ would have told them to pound sand. The future is in tablets, dammit, and you're going to go along with us or go hungry.

I think what's happening to Dell is just the tip of the iceberg. I think Microsoft's W8 debacle has the potential to wreak havoc around the industry. Their systematic destruction of the desktop is only getting started, and it's already sending out shock waves in every direction.

Layback Bear said:

OR maybe if Microsoft runs the PC makers out of business and we get a operating system we don't want plus a PC made the way we don't want. Made by a company with a major stock holder being Microsoft.
Na that could never happen could it?

That sounds like an issue for the SEC!!

I see a Windows 8 PC rev..........