Not so much against the OS as against its perceived failure to revitalize the PC market

Dec 29, 2012 08:52 GMT  ·  By

Fujitsu, like many other companies, is finding itself in the situation where it needs to admit that it didn't perform very well in terms of product shipments, on the PC market at least. Also like others, it is using Windows 8 as a sort of scapegoat.

To be fair, everyone expected the newest operating system from Microsoft to revitalize the personal computer market.

That means everything from mini PCs to HTPCs, desktops and, of course, laptops (notebooks, ultrabooks, netbooks, convertible tablets, etc.).

So far, though, the OS hasn't proven to be such a godsend. While it did enjoy a mostly positive reception, it was nothing spectacular.

In fact, sales of notebooks and tablets haven't actually gone up by that much, despite the winter holiday shopping season.

Since the interest in PCs was flagging well before the OS arrived in October, everything led to a drop in shipments.

Fujitsu itself hoped, back in March, that the year 2012 would end 7 million PC shipments, but this target will fail to be achieved. The corporation will accumulate a bit over 6 million.

Smartphones and tablets made things hard too. That older-generation PCs are already strong enough for every software available today didn't help matters either.

A final detriment is the weak economy in Europe, where a large number of Fujitsu's regular customers reside.

Things may improve in 2013. While Microsoft's Windows 8 did start off with small baby steps instead of leaps, it should reach its stride sooner or later. Already 40 million licenses have been sold, from what we can gather.

Granted, the lull in new PC acquisitions could last for a while, as those who already own computers buy a Windows 8 DVD. Nevertheless, with few exceptions, everyone upgrades their PCs eventually, and with the new hardware on the way (Intel Haswell CPUs, NVIDIA GeForce 700, AMD Solar System HD 8000M), there should be plenty of new PC purchases in 2013 and 2014.