Microsoft Can't Sell Windows 8, So It's Giving It Away

[gregrocker]

More doubling-down on New Coke:

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT ) is pulling a 180. After lambasting Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) for collecting data on its users to sell ads, Microsoft is prepared to do the exact same thing. With weak sales of Windows 8, Microsoft is preparing to offer a free upgrade to Windows 8.1 for Windows 7 users. "Windows 8.1 with Bing," as the name implies, will feed users into Bing search and other Bing services as well as Microsoft's cloud-based services.
Free OS upgrades are something new to Microsoft, but not to the industry. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL ) offered free upgrades to its newest Mac OS X last year, and Google offers free upgrades for Chromebooks and Android devices that support the update. The move is questionable for Microsoft, however, which has typically received $50 per device from OEMs to license Windows.
Nobody is upgrading?
Windows 8 is a strong departure from its predecessors, focusing more on touch devices than traditional mouse and keyboard inputs. So far, the new user interface has been a flop. Only 10.7% of PC users have Windows 8 or 8.1 installed, according to Net Applications. More telling is that fewer than half of Windows 8 users have installed the 8.1 update.
Comparatively, Windows 7 commands a 47.3% share of the market, and 12-year-old Windows XP still has 29.5% of the market. Even though Microsoft has scheduled April 8 as the final day of support for XP, about one-third of Windows users are still on the operating system. The anticipated rush to upgrade has yet to materialize, and it might never happen.

Source: Microsoft Can't Sell Windows 8, So It's Giving It Away

 

[GEWB]

MS would have to pay me to use Metro (any version).

Been there, tried that (for a year), didn't like it...

Regards,
GEWB

 

[SIW2]

LOL.

Maybe MS are thinking people will try it and then find they are stuck with it.

A few will come to forums to get rid of it. But many will not know to do that, or be worried about trying something complicated, so they just remain lumbered with it.

Good plan MS.

 

[SIW2]

@Greg,
Have you posted that on EF?

Some of the responses there will be very funny.

 

[BlueGuy]

Will wait for a look at Windows 9.

 

[techtitan100]

I may give it a try and if I don't like it and I can't go back to Windows 7, then I will use my recovery disks I ordered from Lenovo and go back to Windows 7 since that is what my laptop was always meant for

 

[whs]

MS would have to pay me to use Metro (any version).

Been there, tried that (for a year), didn't like it...

Regards,
GEWB

That will be the next step. They will dish out cash if you use it.

 

[whs]

I am sure even those 10.7% of users are exaggerated because there are probably many like me that got a cheap license in the beginning but are not really using it other than poking at it at times.

 

[SIW2]

I am sure even those 10.7% of users are exaggerated because there are probably many like me that got a cheap license in the beginning but are not really using it other than poking at it at times.

Me too.

 

[strollin]

It's too bad that users can't seem to see past Metro in Win 8/8.1. In Win 8 it's only necessary to see Metro for a brief second until the desktop icon is clicked. In 8.1 the user can configure the system to completely bypass Metro and boot direct to desktop. Why is Metro such a big deal? If you don't like it, don't use it.

I use Win 8.1 on my laptop and don't even remember the last time I used Metro there.

 

[whs]

Bruce, it's not only the Metro. That does not bother me too much. It's all the other nits and lice - charms popping up, apps that have to be closed with Alt+4 or get back to start, many of the settings where you need the new UI (e.g. for bluetooth sync), etc.

We all can deal with that and make suitable arrangements. But ask my neighbor Joe what he thinks about that. Faced with Windows 8, he bought an Apple. He came from way back - ME.

Btw: I have 64bit 8.1 in a virtual partition, 32bit 8.1 on my Transformer (nice machine) and W8P on my Nokia. I am certainly not avoiding Windows 8, LOL.

 

[Gary]

With this offer you would be stuck with Bing and other Cloud services. I will stay with 7.

 

[whs]

Nah, You need not use the cloud. And Bing is OK - or install Chrome.

 

[King Arthur]

Why is Metro such a big deal? If you don't like it, don't use it.

Because that's impossible. You can't not use Metro because of its incomplete implementation where certain things are Metro-only and others are Explorer-only.

 

[M1GU31]

I'm willing to try it just to play around with it some more. Honestly if I hate it I still got my windows 7 disk. Played with it a little bit in beta stages but would like to see how it is now. Want to mostly benchmark.

 

[gregrocker]

Why is Metro such a big deal? If you don't like it, don't use it.

Because that's impossible. You can't not use Metro because of its incomplete implementation where certain things are Metro-only and others are Explorer-only.

This is correct. I helped several users stuck with the Win8 phone app on their new PC's to install the Win7 start menu, yet kept getting calls about the crApps popping up in place of the default Win7 apps they wanted to use.

No better example than the browser being made into a crApp with almost no settings available. This reveals the plan to eventually get rid of the desktop altogether a la Ipad which they are mimicking (badly). You also won't have a choice of browsers and will be Binged to death. They are showing here how valuable forcing Bingware onto the consumer is, such that they would not even charge for the OS itself if they can corral you in picturesque Bingland.

As SIW2 has written about for years now the MS business plan was rewritten to vend these crApps, the Cloud and eventually the whole OS. But they'll all have to be given away free anyway, so what is the business plan again? How about one which refocuses on the best OS ever, which shows no sign of age and leaves nothing to be desired except satisfied customers?

 

[Jonguy30]

Doesn't classic shell and other windows 8 "start menus" get rid of metro completely? Also, MS should have just used the time and money which they used on Windows 8 and the Metro UI to develop a Windows 7 service pack 2. That would have made a lot more people happier. But instead they "focused on Windows 8". Bah.

 

[bawldiggle]

As an AutoCad'er ... Win8 swipe and poke don't work.

It took me about 12 months of Win7 (with the help of this forum) to concede Win7 stability/security is superior to XP. My Acer XP laptop ruptures itself within 12 months, BUT this Toshiba Win7 laptop is still stable after 2 years.
Win7 is a successful marriage of almost-WinXP-UI ... plus vastly superior stability+security
... and then Win8 took a giant step backwards.

Thankfully I bought up on Win7 (stashed under the pit-bull's kennel)

ClassicShell has been downloaded over 10,000,000 times in the last 4 years.
How many of those downloads have resulted in multiple installs? There is a message in that 10,000,000 for MS ... getting back to a practical (maybe not pretty to some) practical UI. And if each download was installed on 4 PCs, that's 40 million.
Does MS think we are going to sit around in cafes texting the dude on the other side of the table for the rest of our lives?
Most of us do paid work to fill in the days, and our PCs are tools not playgrounds.
I want my PC UI to be efficient and not hog the real estate. Start menu and Taskbar make my working environment efficient.

Rhetorical question: how many inheritors of Win8 have not got a clue and assume that Win8-is-all-there-is ?
My "off spring" (professionals) are all around 40yrs old and assumed what-you-see-is-all-there-is ... they have "upgraded" to Win7 (from Win8)

I suspect there are a lot of "users' out here that MS assume are happy with what is dished up.
Unfortunately AutoCad will not play with Linux, if it did I would not look back at Microsoft.

 

[nobodyspecial]

rebranding has many ways to go about it tco and roi are taken into considerationto to me it looks like a rebranded dynamic active portfolio strategy a type of software encroachment if you will it is not a happy give-for-free-and-be-happy-free-a-thon it is a marketing strategy to push other emerging markets back in their place

 

[Solarstarshines]

Using Cloud has disadvantages especially using it to Sync to devices

Just gathering all the little goodies on you till one day while you're sipping Coffee the Hatchet squad comes in and Pins you down over that last Youtube movie you watched

I don't doubt the greatness of 8 i just don't want them storing info on me I had to uninstall googledrive or every time i take a photo it goes to cloud and notify's me which is kind of scarey because my photos could be evidence if i was doing something wrong