Microsoft prepares rethink on Windows 8 flagship software...

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/330c8b8e-b66b-11e2-93ba-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2SdWiSGZL

 

I am skeptical that anything substantial or significant will change.. so I will adopt a "we'll see" attitude for now... I'll believe it when I see it..

 

I was mildly surprised to see it got more negative reaction from the marketplace than Vista did. But when you stop to think about it, while Vista did (for most users) require hardware upgrading, particularly in speed and memory, it (and 7) still used the same kinds of hardware as before.

Microsoft is in effect admitting they misjudged the still-early transition to mobile and semi-mobile devices with touch screens, way under-estimating the number of users, both office and home, who have older but perfectly good systems and who don't feel we've reached the "mobile era" yet.

I found it very interesting that, if I'm reading the quote correctly, MS is trying to palm off at least part of the blame onto hardware mfrs and dealers, for not pushing touch-screens more aggressively when selling new systems.

 

Yes, I think they radically misjudged it, and that's putting it kindly. The real question now is, what (if anything) will they do about it?

 

No they did not misjudge it, this was a tactical move on their part to use their market dominance in the PC industry to jump start their mobile OS.

They figured that when consumers were forced-fed Windows 8 on their PCs, they will find it easier to use Windows 8 equipped smartphones and tablets. In short, this was all done to get market share for Windows 8 equipped mobile devices. That strategy failed miserably.

Good to see that they have now come back to their senses.

 

Full story here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22439496?print=true

 

Of course it was all done for marketing purposes.. that was obvious. They misjudged people's resistance to it, and the huge lack of acceptance. They should have known much better than that. IMO, it was a moronic move from the start.... They also misjudged how long it would take for things to change and evolve in the direction they are pushing.. They pretty much blew it on every count.

Related article also: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/07/windows_8_u_turn/

 

I'm sure the comments are coming that this isn't an admitting of failure but a simple "strategy change". And I'm sure the "100 million sold" comments are on the way too. However, that number means little if not broken down into things like tablets, the government purchase, licenses actually activated (I could buy half a million licenses right now and let 499,999 of them sit. A successful release that does not make.), etc.

They made an astronomical gamble and it isn't paying off well enough, hence "Blue". Maybe next time they'll have a little more think tanking and not just one dude running the show (Sinofsky).

 

Sometimes, I prefer to stick to the road less traveled. I will not let Microsoft dictate where I will go.

 

It has been said before... Give laptop/ultrabook and desktop users the option to completely disable the lame tablet UI during and after the installation of the OS (bringing back the win7 start menu) and the fiasco will vanish like a dream.

 

People don't like Window's Modern User Interface any more than they liked New Coke.

People could have told Steve Ballmer not to introduce such a radical change in Windows but he believed he knew best and wanted to take advantage of a emerging market segment that isn't very large to begin with and still isn't.

In the process, Microsoft alienated millions of desktop PC users without boosting its sales of Windows in any appreciable way. Will Microsoft really reverse course?

People didn't buy New Coke. And they'll keep using Windows they already have and they aren't going along with Redmond's vision of the computing future.

 

Ridiculous analogies between Windows and Coke are nauseating.

So many data that can't be conciliated.

 

Why not give the user the option to choose, during logon, what desktop one wants to use, and to select the default one (the same way it happens with linux distros)? i think that would please everyone.

 

I think that's the way forward.

 

MS didn't want to please anyone. They have an agenda... a marketing agenda and a (misguided) vision of "the future". They blew it. I doubt they will really alter course much even now....

 

Yeah but it would require the CEO to have certain level of IQ and humility to admit to a failure.

 

In my opinion it took a lot of courage for bill gates to launch microsoft windows from day one.

If he had the reserve and resignation which windows 8 seems to bring with it i doubt we would have the windows operating system at all.

Everything had to start somewhere.

 

People that didn't like New Coke were just afraid of change, that's all.

 

Sounds like New Coke kinda sucked to me....

From the Wiki page:

"New Coke was the reformulation of Coca-Cola introduced in 1985 by The Coca-Cola Company to replace the original formula of its flagship soft drink, Coca-Cola (also called Coke). New Coke originally had no separate name of its own, but was simply known as "the new taste of Coca-Cola" until 1992 when it was renamed Coca-Cola II."
"The American public's reaction to the change was negative and the new cola was a major marketing failure. The subsequent reintroduction of Coke's original formula, re-branded as "Coca-Cola Classic", resulted in a significant gain in sales. This led to speculation that the introduction of the New Coke formula was just a marketing ploy; however the company has always claimed it was merely an attempt to replace the original product."

"A major marketing failure"... pretty much like Win 8.

 

"Coca-Cola Classic"?? being the "REAL" coke BULL

Well' I'm an old fart and I was around when they actually made
the real coke, when they brought out the New Coke they stopped making
the old coke and when they dropped that and started making the
"Coca-Cola Classic" they CALLED it the old coke, I guess there are some
people that actually believe that but I say their taste buds must not be
working right or they have never tasted "REAL" Coke

The Real Coke hasn't been made for years and at this point I do not believe we will ever see it again, It is a shame

 

People that didn't like new Coke didn't like Pepsi because that is what it tasted like....

...and people that don't like Windows 8 are out of luck, because 8.1 is not going to be a major change.

 

Yep, looks like you got that right....

 

Lol to that!

 

Perhaps it's too early to tell, but does Win 8 belong in that infamous category where Millenium and Vista reside? Those operating systems had their small share of supporters at the time as well.