Windows 8 Falls Behind Even the Maligned Vista
It’s well known by now that Windows 8 isn’t selling well, even at its new low price point of $40, reduced even further with current launch offers. However, it’s now come to light that it’s selling even worse than the much maligned Windows Vista did in 2007!
According to Net Applications, Windows 8’s online presence has actually fallen to below that of Vista’s at the same length of time after release, just two months on the market. On December 22, W8’s usage share was sitting at 1.6% of all Windows PCs, up from 1.2% in November. However, in the same period, Vista was sitting at 2.2%, up from around 1% the month before. This is an abysmal result and compares very poorly with Windows 7’s 6%+ share after the same two months on the market. It’s possible that Christmas sales may redress this balance, but it seems unlikely.
News is that the upcoming Windows Blue upgrade to Windows 8 in mid-2013 will keep the unloved Metro/Modern UI interface that is putting so many people off, front and centre, along with the continued removal of the Start menu. However, it looks like Microsoft should seriously reconsider this if it wants Windows 8 to succeed.
Even if Windows 8 makes a showing strong enough this month to match Vista, it will continue to have difficulty keeping pace: By the end of Vista’s third month, it accounted for 3.3% of all copies of Windows. To equal that, Windows 8 would have to double its current share by the end of January 2013.
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