14 DAY TRIAL // With Microsoft providing so little information on Windows 8’s sales performance since launch, nobody knows for sure whether or not the new operating system is successful.
Analysts and retailers across the world, on the other hand, claim it isn’t, so Windows 8 is expected to increase its market share this year, as the PC market is also predicted to post a significant recovery.
But Aaron Suzuki, CEO of SmartDeploy, a company that takes care of technology deployment for enterprises, told Forbes that Windows 8 would only record a moderate share increase this year, as most users will prefer to stick to Windows 7.
As always, the confusion around Windows 8 and the significant UI changes are cited as the main reasons why people prefer to stay away from Microsoft’s latest operating system.
“Most organizations got so far along with Windows 7 that to consider preparing for and testing a new wave of migration is the farthest thing from their mind. Plus, Windows 8 is a big change, not just a follow-on the way Windows 7 was,” he said.
“My expectation is that people will stick to Windows 7 and it will be the corporate standard for a long time.”
Microsoft, however, is not concerned with the way Windows 8 performs and claims that its sales performance so far is in line with Windows 7.
The company sold a total of 60 million copies in just two months after launch, with figures very likely to grow this year as more Windows 8 devices are scheduled to see daylight.
This is actually one of the reasons mentioned by Microsoft when talking about an alleged slow sales performance of its new software, as the number of devices running Windows 8 is still small for the time being. The next few months will witness the debut of several new laptops, desktop PCs and tablets running Windows 8, so the company has pretty high expectations from its reinvented operating system.