[PCWorld]

Post your comments for PC prices must rise, not fall, to solve Windows 8's lousy start, analyst argues here

[DrSpanky]

If Steven Baker thinks his strategy is going to turn sales around, he's got another thing coming. People are spending less for any number of reasons, lack of employment being a big one. I agree with his analysis, but the economy disagrees. I think the economy will win this argument. Just my two cents.

[mipakeli]

An OS that is optimized for touch when 95% of the PC's out there do NOT have a touch screen is out of touch with reality. And those with desktops don't really want touchscreens with all that greasy finger prints that results and besides if you have a 30 inch wide desk and set the screen back to the edge of the desk to maximize your desk space then who has arms long enough to touch the screen? Maybe basketball players ha.

[ClaudeD]

With anallyst's like this one it is further proof that this one has no talent what so ever. Raise prices, how about we get his pay cut 50% and then put em in the unemployment line. Rasie prices, another candidate for the "Village Idiot" position.

[eMJay]

Raising prices on a product that few people are driven to buy will only serve to destroy any chance of impulse buying that such a product would desperately need to sustain its market growth. I'm not sure what this analyst was smoking, but I'm guessing it was probably illegal in most states :-)

In the past, PCs were the only devices capable of getting simple (yet commonly performed) tasks done....and as such, PCs enjoyed huge mindshare among consumers. That has now changed with the appearance of smartphones and tablets on the market. Mindshare as well as daily routines are now split between several devices, and mobile devices are changing the daily computing behavior of consumers in ways that hurt PC sales. If you're turning to your smartphone and/or tablet for your most commonly performed Internet related tasks on any typical day, you're going to be using your old PC less often. Eventually you will begin thinking less often about using your PC and even less about replacing it with another, since you're no longer as dependent on that kind of device as you once were.

With that sort of scenario increasingly unfolding globally, it won't matter what price tag you put on a PC. It's a war between competing form factors that's unfolding - and among everyday consumers the old PC form factor is losing the mindshare battle and the mobile convenience battle and the price battle simultaneously. Pushing touchscreen tech onto the traditional PC form factor does nothing to make it competitive, because the PC form factor limits the practicality of the touch screen from a ergonomic perspective.

[max999]

PC prices must rise!!! LOL!!!

Windows 8 was DOA!!! Nothing can fix that!!!

[Boletusedulis]

If I were in the market, I'd pay an extra $30 to not have the touchy-feely OS.

[KevinBtu7s]

Okay, this is just nonsense what this author has written. Tech developers, marketers and even the guy at the store, that often you know more about the product than he does, will tell you that prices of electronics fall and don't go up. What's the saying...wait a few months and it'll be on sale as merchants make room for the new models?

What's going on here is what's already been eluded to, that a number of things are conspiring against the PC. From being so prevelent, that if you don't have a PC at home then you use one at work (inbetween actually doing your job) and businesses only upgrade every decade or so and it's not a timeline that you often control. If you do have a PC at home then as many people choose not to upgrade as choose to do. I'm still running Vista on my Acer laptop with Office 2000 and both are running like champs. My parents are still running XP, despite MS dropping support for it, and only now after fifteen years are they considering upgrading their OS and machine.

But more importantly its becoming a world that's moving past the PC. Yes, the PC will still be an instrumental part of getting work, entertainment and personal tasks done; but with kiosks, smart phones, tablets and whatever else, you don't necessarily need a PC to get a lot of your tasks done. I myself recently bid on an auction using my IPod Touch while I was out and about and the PC was at home.

All that happens when you raise prices is people buy less. Windows 8 is also a dud of an operating system simply because MS chose to incorporate touch screen tech heavily into it even knowing the vast majority of PC's out there aren't touch screens. And also they fixed something that wasn't broken in that they moved away from the traditional Windows set up. A set up the world had become intimately familiar with and the people are responding by not upgrading. I've for one advised my parents against it and likely will go with Linux which I've already downloaded for them...

KB

[karthiq]

Quote

Raising prices on a product that few people are driven to buy will only serve to destroy any chance of impulse buying that such a product would desperately need to sustain its market growth. I'm not sure what this analyst was smoking, but I'm guessing it was probably illegal in most states :-) In the past, PCs were the only devices capable of getting simple (yet commonly performed) tasks done....and as such, PCs enjoyed huge mindshare among consumers. That has now changed with the appearance of smartphones and tablets on the market. Mindshare as well as daily routines are now split between several devices, and mobile devices are changing the daily computing behavior of consumers in ways that hurt PC sales. If you're turning to your smartphone and/or tablet for your most commonly performed Internet related tasks on any typical day, you're going to be using your old PC less often. Eventually you will begin thinking less often about using your PC and even less about replacing it with another, since you're no longer as dependent on that kind of device as you once were. With that sort of scenario increasingly unfolding globally, it won't matter what price tag you put on a PC. It's a war between competing form factors that's unfolding - and among everyday consumers the old PC form factor is losing the mindshare battle and the mobile convenience battle and the price battle simultaneously. Pushing touchscreen tech onto the traditional PC form factor does nothing to make it competitive, because the PC form factor limits the practicality of the touch screen from a ergonomic perspective.

spot on!!

[change28]

Yes, doubling the price will double the sales!

Unless of course, you have a product with utility to only a few people!

[stakeouttoo]

Win8.. from the beginning.. a disaster... unless you listened to the hype of the techies and reporters trying to promote it... Win8= Vista II..actually it is much worse.. at least Vista was usable... I said that from the first time I tried Win8 out... all they had to do is ask 'average PC users' what they thought of it .. not give it to super-tech-heads who are out of touch and who try to 'spin' Win8 as being good and better than Win7... what.. faster you say.. the 'average user' couldn't even tell the difference measured in nano-seconds or whatever.. it's a joke.. I'll stick with Win7 ..it's the best of the best.. actually my older XP beats Win8 hands-down.. why.. because I can use it.. Win8 is unusable unless you are a 'tablet-fanatic' and all you do is emails ..texts.. and play games.. not for me.. I don't appreciate a greasy fingerprint smudgy monitor to view all my image files ..disasterous

the only thing that can 'maybe' rescue Win 8 is an SP1 Update giving the User an Option of two interfaces as a default . the old standard 'START button interface' or the newer Tablet-oriented one....will that happen.. probably not... trying to force-feed the new tiled interface down the throats of millions of users is mind-boggling..having to do 4 steps in Win8 in comparison to 1-step in Win 7 to access my image editing programs is unbelievable in this day and age..

okay so when will MS announce Windows 9 ???!!??

Microsoft.. you struck out! big time!!

[waldojim]

stakeouttoo, on 08 January 2013 - 03:01 AM, said:

Win8.. from the beginning.. a disaster... unless you listened to the hype of the techies and reporters trying to promote it... Win8= Vista II..actually it is much worse.. at least Vista was usable... I said that from the first time I tried Win8 out... all they had to do is ask 'average PC users' what they thought of it .. not give it to super-tech-heads who are out of touch and who try to 'spin' Win8 as being good and better than Win7... what.. faster you say.. the 'average user' couldn't even tell the difference measured in nano-seconds or whatever.. it's a joke.. I'll stick with Win7 ..it's the best of the best.. actually my older XP beats Win8 hands-down.. why.. because I can use it.. Win8 is unusable unless you are a 'tablet-fanatic' and all you do is emails ..texts.. and play games.. not for me.. I don't appreciate a greasy fingerprint smudgy monitor to view all my image files ..disasterous

the only thing that can 'maybe' rescue Win 8 is an SP1 Update giving the User an Option of two interfaces as a default . the old standard 'START button interface' or the newer Tablet-oriented one....will that happen.. probably not... trying to force-feed the new tiled interface down the throats of millions of users is mind-boggling..having to do 4 steps in Win8 in comparison to 1-step in Win 7 to access my image editing programs is unbelievable in this day and age..

okay so when will MS announce Windows 9 ???!!??

Microsoft.. you struck out! big time!!

Not all of us need hype to enjoy a product. Apparently, not all of us feel as you do. Windows 8 is a decent product that is taking a massive leap forward.

If you choose to only see the negative, then that is all you will be capable of.

[thewazak]

"Experts have struggled to explain the slow start for Windows 8"
Just shows how dumb these people really are!
Bear in mind that W7 was (and remains) an excellent OS - and that many have only just upgraded to it, so for the majority there is no rush to move. Besides, for the time being, many are cautious about touch capability on their main computer. As a result, uptake is understandably "slow".
But that has not stopped the US military from buying $600M worth of W8 licenses from Microsoft. They just want the best in the new increasingly mobile IT world where a common OS across platforms just makes sense.
(But shhhhhhhhhhh. Don't tell the "experts" and fanbois!)

[SElope]

Another genius. He will probably become the next Nokia or Microsoft CEO.

[MichaelRousseau]

Windows 8 is a decent product that is taking a massive leap forward. If you choose to only see the negative, then that is all you will be capable of. [/quote]
I am always skeptical of people that just go on hate rant in these forums. The way he talks I suspect he hasn't even tried it or walked into a computer store and tried it for 10 seconds. Either way it sounds like he just wants to hate. Personally I like Win 8 and have Win 8 pro upgrade on my laptop. IMO it has way more pros then cons to it. One OS for all devices is a massive leap forward. MS is going in the right direction.

[atomopix]

W8 baffles -- it is not advanced nor clever enough for working artists to mess with learning nuance, and nuance is what you need to work. Striving to be different while being the same was smart on paper, dopey in execution. Like offering i3 and i5 computers which feel sloggy; like using underskilled labor. I need fast and intuitive, not slow with learning curve. Sticking with Vista, which means sticking with friendly unleaded Windows and not buying new.

[BenjaminHua]

Quote

An OS that is optimized for touch when 95% of the PC's out there do NOT have a touch screen is out of touch with reality. And those with desktops don't really want touchscreens with all that greasy finger prints that results and besides if you have a 30 inch wide desk and set the screen back to the edge of the desk to maximize your desk space then who has arms long enough to touch the screen? Maybe basketball players ha.

You must not be familiar with the Cintiq and soon to be out if not already Cintiq touches. And if there was a touchscreen that stayed attached to the desk, it would be in that manner of usage.

And for extensive uses, a good cleaning every now and then wouldn't hurt. So your fingerprints argument is sort of moot.

[JohnUSA]

The truth that Microsoft and the PC companies need to face is that Windows 8 is a horrible OS and users do not want it.
Microsoft MUST release a new and fixed Windows 9 as soon as possible for people to buy new PCs.
I and million of other users will NEVER use the abysmal, poorly designed and irritating Windows 8.

[julio99]

Quote

Windows 8 is a decent product that is taking a massive leap forward. If you choose to only see the negative, then that is all you will be capable of.

Good for you. I tried every which way you can and I would rather use "a warmed over version of Win 7" than use this half baked OS on my nice laptop.

[rgeiken]

All these analysts are commiserating about W8. Obviously they do not know anything about Windows computers. You can't make a silk purse out a Sow's ear. That about sums it all up. I have been using Windows O/Ss for over 20 years, but W8 is not in the cards for me as for a lot of other long time Windows users. I have easily gone from W95 to W7 without breaking a sweat. Each new O/S was somewhat different, but it was usually an improvement on the previous version. We are now up to W8, and the professional users don't see W8 as an improvement, but rather a step backwards or sideways whichever way you want to see it. If they had kept the Start Menu on the Desktop, I think a lot of people would have held their noses, but still opted to update. The way they have designed it, Makes it difficult and clumsy to use for people who have used Windows computers for years. Sounds like Microsoft designers had their mind made up about what they were going to produce. I just wonder how many long time users of Windows would have advised them to eliminate the Start Menu? I predict about Zero. They did it their way and now they will have to live with the consequences.