Samsung Exec Blames Windows 8 for Declining PC Market

[twelch82]

I tend to agree with Samsung about Windows 8 being responsible for declining PC sales. Most people don't even want it, so it's certainly not pushing people to go out and buy new hardware to run it.

However, I don't agree about PCs going away. I'll eventually be buying a new PC - but I need some new hardware to justify it. Intel, how about a 10-12 core processor?

If it doesn't happen right away, I do think that in a couple of years gaming will provide a motivation to buy new hardware anyway. The hidden thing behind the PS3 announcement (and the theorized next-Xbox specs) is that the consoles are expected to have a large number of cores. That's important because it will push game makers to build better multicore support into their games. That in turn will help sell new PC hardware when people want to play the PC versions of those games.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]house70[/nom]I forgot to mention the drivers; for Win7, one could use WinVista drivers just as well. Win8 required new drivers. The support did not keep up the pace.[/citation]

Almost all of my Vista and 7 drivers work in 8. A few don't, but most of them do.

 

[blazorthon]

I tend to agree with Samsung about Windows 8 being responsible for declining PC sales. Most people don't even want it, so it's certainly not pushing people to go out and buy new hardware to run it.

However, I don't agree about PCs going away. I'll eventually be buying a new PC - but I need some new hardware to justify it. Intel, how about a 10-12 core processor?

If it doesn't happen right away, I do think that in a couple of years gaming will provide a motivation to buy new hardware anyway. The hidden thing behind the PS3 announcement (and the theorized next-Xbox specs) is that the consoles are expected to have a large number of cores. That's important because it will push game makers to build better multicore support into their games. That in turn will help sell new PC hardware when people want to play the PC versions of those games.

Windows 8 has almost nothing to do with current PC sales. The desktop/laptop form factors were already in a decline before Windows 8 launched and they didn't get any worse as a direct result of it. Fact is that the vast majority of people don't care if they have Windows 7 or Windows 8, but most people who want a laptop/ultrabook/desktop/etc. already have one and that industry is slowing down for several reasons.

With a declining economy almsot on an entirely global scale and heavy competition from other, more mobile form factors, of course the older x86 Windows platform is in a decline. It has to balance out with the newer smart phone and tablet markets and they all have to deal with the poor economical situation and more. Eventually, the newer markets will more or less peak too and growth will slow down greatly like it did with the *standard* Windows/OSX/etc. markets.

Windows 8 undoubtedly helped make things worse, but not significantly so. It was a decent product that brought on some significant UI changes in a time where it's industry was already more or less climaxed in popularity. It would have taken a miracle to stop, let alone counteract, that trend no matter how good Windows 8 was (at least what would be a miracle if you wanted to support Windows).

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]Stevemeister[/nom]I also disagree that the PC market will die. Tablets and smartphones may satisfy the needs of teenagers and websurfers but those of us who program and use PC's for work will never surrender our PC's for tablets[/citation] The Desktop as we know it, will pretty much die out... like the old room-size servers of old days... wait, they still make room size servers... but they are far more powerful than the things from the 60s and 70s. The tower desktop will be reduced to workstations, people who are developers or working on projects that require such hardware.

Look at those who develop games for consoles... no, they don't use the console to do the coding/artwork/ etc... they use desktop system.

The common "USER" will no longer be the desktop/notebook user. It *IS* phones and tablets. And I still remember the articles from various sites (including Anandtech) and user blogs about "tablets are a fad"... LOL!! The common person has NEVER cared for the desktop... its too technical.

I am in the computer industry. I have two Desktops that I use and two Thinkpads. One Thinkpad has Win8 on it still for testing purposes (the Preview version, it runs... kinda) but I have just downloaded LinuxMint to replace Win8.... full time.

Compare the PC market today to that from 10 years ago... ACER ate Gateway & eMachines (not sure why). SONY is still around, HP sucked in Compaq and as of this year - the Compaq brand is officially dead. HP bought Compaq for the business market (HP was thought of a consumer brand). For years Compaq has been the lo-end HPs. But now... when you go to the Compaq site, it just points to HP. Toshiba won't last long. Lenovo is actually growing.

The desktop platform is dying... PC gaming is dying... Sure it won't 100% die... look at the Amiga, where hardware from the 80s~90s is still operational. Linux will become the desktop OS eventually.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]harrypotter[/nom]Just get a start menu 8, it's free, and stop bitching ,so sick of all the brainless trolls[/citation] The $5 version from StarDock is much better and does what MS SHOULD have done... which is allow Metro Apps to run on the desktop.

[citation][nom]rahulkadukar[/nom]So basically the entire PC industry is going down because of a START button. I simply hate Windows 8 because it is trying to be a touch based OS but I don't want to touch my PC/laptop. We have a separate category for them and it is called Tablets. Microsoft please remove your head from your a** and just give the START button back.[/citation]
The problem of Windows8 is much more than the Start Button. Its TIFKAM, its the store, its the spam, its the pricing, its the market... the whole thing is shit.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]Stevemeister[/nom]3 years is too short a cycle for the average person to want to change their OS.[/citation] You had some valid points... but the ending line is my main responds to you.
Actually, A new OS release every 1~2 years is needed to keep up with industry upgrades and features. Apple does this almost yearly and sells it for about $25~35 (1~5 Macs).

WinXP was on the market far too long, it stagnate the industry in which developers became lazy. Thing is, the Service Packs can be thought of (and should be) as OS upgrades. So there should be a 7.1, etc.

Win8 would have been a great upgraded OS if it (A) had NONE of this METRO / TIFKAM crap... or it ran on the desktop as the widget it really is. (B) the Desktop UI wasn't turned into the flat ugly shit that it is. The skin for Win8 on ver 8400 Preview looks slick... it would have been great.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Windows 8 has almost nothing to do with current PC sales. [/citation]
More or less. It was always STUPID for any CEO/board for any PC company to think that Windows8 was going to increase sales. This is not the 90s, where an OS upgrade was every 2-3 years and new features demanded newer hardware. Vista demanded newer hardware for the wrong reasons. ie: it didn't do anything that XP already did with 1/4 the resources.

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Windows 8 undoubtedly helped make things worse, but not significantly so. It was a decent product that brought on some significant UI changes in a time where it's industry was already more or less climaxed in popularity. It would have taken a miracle to stop, let alone counteract, that trend no matter how good Windows 8 was (at least what would be a miracle if you wanted to support Windows).[/citation] More or less... I think Win8 is helping to kill the PC Windows industry faster.

I lost my train of thought on another posts... in that the desktop as we know it, *IS* going away for the common person. Hence, MS desire to merge the Desktoptabletphone UI makes SENSE. You know me on this. I think the IDEA is good, its valid... its to save MS's ass. But they did it wrong and did it badly. Like I said above, I have 4 main computers. I also have an iPad... which I feel asleep last night next to my fiancee, because my 24" screen doesn't work well on the the bed.

I have these two notebooks with a 13" and 15" screens, yet my girlfriend is using her 4" android phone for internet and her visiting 16yr old niece is using her iPhone. Even I have posted on this site from my iPad. This is a sign of the times... and Microsoft was too slow to catch on.

This is WHY when anyone says "Microsoft owns 90% of the desktop market" it means nothing. Because when you include mobile devices... Microsoft is the minority, down around 24% market share.

And worse yet... Windows8 and its various flavors IS NOT changing that... the desktop continues to sink, the Surface is selling well, and other Win8 tablets are not selling. MS has dropped the price to OEMs for tablets and touch screen computers... which WILL NOT make them make more inventory... they can only build on demand, duh! If MS sold Win8 to OEMs for $5 a pop (which would be very helpful) - the sales of the hardware will not change.

I and many others like me *DID NOT* buy the $40 Win8 upgrades. Hell, I wish they did that with Windows7.

And pretty much every Win8 owner who LIKES Windows 8 says the same thing:
Its not that bad (ouch)
Its fine when you add WIn8Start or whatever ($0~5)
I don't use metro, just don't use metro.
Learn the keyboard shortcuts.

What the f?! This is not helping. When Windows7 came out... it was "you gotta get it!"

Microsoft is going down... and its getting faster and faster... we are seeing this now. In another year, MS is going to look much worse.

It would have been helpful *IF* Win8 used a standard code-base. it doesn't. Windows8 desktop Metro, RT, and Phone are all different! If a developer makes an app for the Win8PHone, he has to remake it for the RT version. OUCH! What a mess!

Meanwhile, most iPhone and Android apps work on both the Phone and tablet platforms!

Microsoft has shown the world that they are no longer in control and that they are a stupid company doing stupid things. They are showing their greed with their non-transferable Office 2013 lic.... (okay, recently fixed) - so if you bought O2013 Pro at $400, then in a few months bought a new notebook... you would have had to spend another $400+ for Office 2013?!

Office2013 and Win8 are ugly... and are less needed than they were 10 years ago. The stupidity of Microsoft is driving some of us to Linux and even MacOS... these are facts, the industry numbers show this. I wouldn't have believed this 12 month ago.

Save these posts/threads folks... come back here in a year or so.

 

[BiMoadalCrapFestUI]

blazorthon, there is an ASUS on sell at microcenter, but I will not buy it beacuse it has windows 8! I will not buy into the windows 8 ecosystem, but if this laptop came with windows 7, I woud be using it right now! That is the direct result of windows 8, and any PC with it is a NO DEAL for me! Windows 8 is causing a PC sales slump, and on just about every blog post I see, windows 8 PC owners have a negative reaction towards your beloved bi-modal OS, mostly of the wipe and re-install windows 7 or other OSs, with a few start 8s and other restore the start menu options!

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]BiMoadalCrapFestUI[/nom]blazorthon, there is an ASUS on sell at microcenter, but I will not buy it beacuse it has windows 8! I will not buy into the windows 8 ecosystem, but if this laptop came with windows 7, I woud be using it right now! That is the direct result of windows 8, and any PC with it is a NO DEAL for me! Windows 8 is causing a PC sales slump, and on just about every blog post I see, windows 8 PC owners have a negative reaction towards your beloved bi-modal OS, mostly of the wipe and re-install windows 7 or other OSs, with a few start 8s and other restore the start menu options![/citation]

Windows 8 is not causing this slump as I and belardo have explained... Since I (and especially belardo) have already explained it well enough, I won't repeat what has been said in the last few comments.

There are a huge amount of Windows 7 computers still available. If it's really such a deal-breaker for you, then you shouldn't have any trouble finding something you like that has 7.

 

[MaXimus421]

The PC industry survived Vista (among other things) and it will survive Win 8.

I am not a personal fan of the OS, but thankfully there are a few excellent alternatives to it.

Kind of a stupid comment from Samsung, ya know?

 

[inzone]

Microsoft thinks that every time they launch a new OS it has to be better then the last and people should just accept this and buy it. However I have noticed a pattern with what Microsoft releases and it goes like this. Every other OS is a keeper , go back over the years and look at all the Operating Systems that have been rolled out ;
Windows 95 a keeper and the start of the modern interface.
Windows 98 not so good and people wanted to stay with 95
Windows 98 SE a keeper and you could now upgrade from 95 and have a much better OS
Windows ME , absolute horror show and should have been banned in most countries
Windows XP , May be the best of the best and people still are using it and won't give it up
Windows Vista , not so great and could not make anyone migrate from XP to it.
Windows 7 a sure fire winner and a lot of people went from XP to it and really liker it maybe the second best of all time.
Windows 8, if you've been following the pattern then you know it's not good.

I went from XP to Win 7 and will not do Win 8 and while it may be an ok OS there's the pattern to consider and from the first results it's not looking good. Yes you will have some people liking it as did some like the other stinkers but I'm afraid it's wait for the next one unless Microsoft does some magic and transforms it into a better OS with a massive service pack release.

Now after all of this Windows history the thing is it's not Windows 8 that's causing the slump in Pc sales , it's the younger generation going with the new smartphones and tablets and liking that type of device over a Pc. They are more into texting and tweeting and Facebook which you don't need a Pc for.
So as for the title of this thread goes and the Samsung exec. blaming Windows 8 for declining Pc sales I would have to say he's wrong because you can get Windows 7 if you want to.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]inzone[/nom]Microsoft thinks that every time they launch a new OS it has to be better then the last and people should just accept this and buy it. However I have noticed a pattern with what Microsoft releases and it goes like this. Every other OS is a keeper , go back over the years and look at all the Operating Systems that have been rolled out ;Windows 95 a keeper and the start of the modern interface.Windows 98 not so good and people wanted to stay with 95Windows 98 SE a keeper and you could now upgrade from 95 and have a much better OSWindows ME , absolute horror show and should have been banned in most countriesWindows XP , May be the best of the best and people still are using it and won't give it upWindows Vista , not so great and could not make anyone migrate from XP to it.Windows 7 a sure fire winner and a lot of people went from XP to it and really liker it maybe the second best of all time.Windows 8, if you've been following the pattern then you know it's not good.I went from XP to Win 7 and will not do Win 8 and while it may be an ok OS there's the pattern to consider and from the first results it's not looking good. Yes you will have some people liking it as did some like the other stinkers but I'm afraid it's wait for the next one unless Microsoft does some magic and transforms it into a better OS with a massive service pack release.Now after all of this Windows history the thing is it's not Windows 8 that's causing the slump in Pc sales , it's the younger generation going with the new smartphones and tablets and liking that type of device over a Pc. They are more into texting and tweeting and Facebook which you don't need a Pc for.So as for the title of this thread goes and the Samsung exec. blaming Windows 8 for declining Pc sales I would have to say he's wrong because you can get Windows 7 if you want to.[/citation]

A lot of people bring up that apparent pattern, but it's missing a lot of context. For example, XP as generally disliked (for good reason) until SP2. It was buggy, had driver issues, and it compared to Windows 2000/ME/98SE was almost like comparing XP to Vista in terms of bloat and poor resource management.

There's also the general consensus that Vista, like XP, got good after it had SP2. 7 was, quite literally ,just a tweaked version of Vista and SP2 mostly brought much of 7's changes to Vista, so that it was liked better than Vista shouldn't come as a surprise. 7 and Vista SP2 also had the advantage over launch Vista of a much more mature driver platform and much better average hardware specs for most computers.

So, the off-on patter suggested many times is really a (no offense intended) somewhat narrow-minded way of looking at it and doesn't work when you take more of the facts into consideration.

8 falls into a somewhat unique position for this in that unlike previous versions of Windows, it's issues are almost purely the UI rather than function and it also released in a time where the Windows PC was being replaced in many ways by more mobile/convenient platforms.

 

[darkavenger123]

I have installed Windows 8 and reverted to Windows 7. Common windows 8 problems - sound card compatibility (both ASUS and Creative have same crackling problems), refuse to work with apps properly (TVERSITY, even with so called optimized version), fugly (where's my transparency??). There really is no reason for Windows 8, it downgrades your PC to become uglier, tons of problems and doesn't works faster than Windows 7. So what's the point?

If you just surf web and use MS OFFICE, probably it will be fine for you. If you intend to do something more specific. Be prepared for headaches.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]MaXimus421[/nom]The PC industry survived Vista (among other things) and it will survive Win 8.I am not a personal fan of the OS, but thankfully there are a few excellent alternatives to it. Kind of a stupid comment from Samsung, ya know?[/citation] This is NOT 2006. This is 2013... The computer landscape is completely different. The iPhone was just a baby back then.
This IS DIFFERENT. WE have far more options now... that were not there back then. There were NO tablets back then.

Windows wasn't POPULAR because people liked or loved it.... it was because it was a standard.

 

[tiredofthecomplaints]

@anxiousinfusion try typing "control" at the start screen. no need to search for it, just start typing - and voila! the good ole Control Panel. I was not "Trained." I'm a tech and I figured it out. People are afraid of change. I spend 15 minutes with a customer and show them how to navigate it and the are on their way with a happy face.

 

[jacklynembrey]

some new and awesome information there and most of i do read first time like he said. "Meanwhile, previous vigorous pitches by Intel and Microsoft for thinner Ultrabooks simply failed and I believe that’s mostly because of the less-competitive Windows platform.".= i also do work a so i know how much it better for me.

 

[bebangs]

im buying a laptop this week, i am specifically filtering out all windows8 OS.

just NO.

 

[gggplaya]

Windows 8 sucks, i used it for 2 days and then switch back to windows 7. Windows 8 is heavily biased towards tablet use, which makes it suck for PC use.

I think microsoft is to blame here.

 

[belardo]

Lenovo Thinkpads come with win7 by default. You can order and get it within a week or so for $450~2000.

 

[ceh4702]

I want to see a big class action law suit against Microsoft. Bring it on! Microsoft purposely with malice of forethought introduced an operating system that did not work and then forced OEM through exclucive monopolistic contracts to sell only Windows 8. Make Microsoft buy back every copy.

 

[blazorthon]

I want to see a big class action law suit against Microsoft. Bring it on! Microsoft purposely with malice of forethought introduced an operating system that did not work and then forced OEM through exclucive monopolistic contracts to sell only Windows 8. Make Microsoft buy back every copy.

Windows 8 does "work" and there are still tons of Windows 7 computers available to be bought. Even online at the OEM's websites, there are still many Windows 7 options. Also, I highly doubt that malice had any part in MS's business decisions. At worst, that'd be greed, not malice. I see no truth in any of your claims except maybe that you want to see a lawsuit, but I see no good reason for that to occur, at least no good reason within your false supporting claims.

 

[DonQuixoteMC]

Is Windows 8 really THAT bad? I would think the change in preference is what's killing the Desktop PC, not the operating system.
The availability of mobile computers today makes the stationary desktop a relic by comparison.